‘Lockdowns do not prevent future coronavirus infections’: Donald Trump pushes back against further restrictions
Citing Australia among many other countries, the US President has vowed to oppose further measures.
Donald Trump has vowed to oppose growing pressure to lockdown the US economy again to combat the surging coronavirus, saying such a move would cause more harm than good.
The president cited Australia among many other countries that he said had implemented a lockdown only to suffer a renewed flare-up of the virus.
His comments came in response to growing calls from health experts for the US to slow or reverse the country’s reopening to try to contain a virus that Mr Trump’s own health adviser Deborah Birx this week described as “extraordinarily widespread”.
But Mr Trump is determined to push for an ongoing reopening of the economy, which is in recession, and also the opening of schools ahead of the November election.
“A permanent lockdown is not a viable path towards getting the result you want and would ultimately inflict more harm than it would prevent,” Mr Trump said at the White House on Tuesday (AEDT).
“Lockdowns do not prevent infections in the future,” he said, naming Australia, Germany, Spain, France, Japan and China as examples where the virus has made a comeback.
Mr Trump has long argued that the human cost of lost jobs and a crushed economy through lockdowns are greater than the cost of lives lost to the virus.
Mr Trump criticised his chief health adviser Dr Birx for making comments suggesting the virus, which has infected almost five million Americans and killed more than 158,000 was now in a “new phase”.
“What we’re seeing today is different from March and April,” Dr Birx said. “It is extraordinarily widespread.”
Dr Birx made the comments after Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she didn’t have confidence in Dr Birx because she was the appointee of a president who had peddled misinformation about the virus.
But Dr Birx’s blunt words annoyed Mr Trump, who has sought to play down the virus.
“So Crazy Nancy Pelosi said horrible things about Dr Deborah Birx, going after her because she was too positive on the very good job we are doing on combating the China Virus, including Vaccines & Therapeutics. In order to counter Nancy, Deborah took the bait & hit us. Pathetic!,” Mr Trump tweeted.
So Crazy Nancy Pelosi said horrible things about Dr. Deborah Birx, going after her because she was too positive on the very good job we are doing on combatting the China Virus, including Vaccines & Therapeutics. In order to counter Nancy, Deborah took the bait & hit us. Pathetic!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 3, 2020
Mr Trump, who has also clashed publicly with his other chief health adviser Anthony Fauci, later softened his criticism of Dr Birx, saying she was “a person I have a lot of respect for”.
The president said he believed the US was now slowly getting on top of the pandemic.
“We are beginning to see evidence of significant progress nationwide,” he said. It was “an encouraging sign, very encouraging, I have to add, that the virus is receding”.
Mr Trump said that infection rates were now falling sharply in the virus hot spots of Texas, Florida and Arizona but conceded they were still rising in many other states.
Experts are concerned about fast rising cases across the upper south and midwest and early signs of a fresh breakout in the north east states like New Jersey which were devastated by the virus in April.
The figures have led to calls from many health experts to slow or reverse the reopening of the economy, a move which the White House has staunchly opposed.
“That is kind of the predictor that if you don’t do something — namely, do something different — if you’re opening up at a certain pace, slow down, maybe even backtrack a little,” Dr Fauci said.
A report released this week by Johns Hopkins University stated: “Unlike many countries in the world, the United States is not currently on course to get control of this epidemic. It’s time to reset.”
Many state Governors have already responded to rising infection rates by taking tentative steps to slow or reverse recent moves to re-open restaurants, bars, gyms and hair salons.
Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia
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