(CNN)Does the President have any sense of what’s at stake?While the University of Washington’s coronavirus model — one often cited by the White House — is predicting American deaths will be nearly twice as high as it had previously predicted, and the New York Times reports that the White House’s own internal documents say the death toll could rise to 3,000 deathsevery day by June 1, President Donald Trump is telling the American people that it’s time to ease the social distancing protocols.
Jill FilipovicWhat could go wrong?A return to “normal” is impossible and an attempt to return to normal is a crazy proposition given the data we have. But it might make a little bit more sense if we had the disease-fighting basics of a developed, functioning nation in place: Widespread testing and tracking; adequate protective gear for hospital workers and all essential employees; and a health care system that took care of all sick people without pitching them into debt or even bankruptcy.We should have invested in all of these things months ago, and must do so immediately. At the absolute minimum, the President should not reopen the country until we can adequately test, track and treat patients, and until we can provide enough PPE for all of our front-line workers.
Opening America now is ludicrous
