Americans with serious illnesses sacrificed to slow Covid down; owe them re-opening: Trump

United States President Donald Trump, citing treatment for diseases such as cancer, stated that it was important for the hospitals to attend the other patients as well. Trump said that many citizens are not able to undergo basic medical surgeries because of the focus on coronavirus.

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POTUS bats for allowing other treatments

In a town hall event with Fox News, President Trump stated that hospitals are also losing a lot of revenue and are not being able to attend to other patients, with entire hospitals being blocked for the usage of coronavirus. 

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In a twitter post, the White House, President Trump said, "We have to let them come back. It's okay with us. Again, that's up to the Governor. We have some hospitals where there is almost no COVID and you have the hospital where you can't do elective surgery. In some cases, they are waiting along and that's not a good thing. They have to get back. They have to let these hospitals (function), cause these hospitals are losing a fortune. They have to let the hospitals open and get back to elective surgery. There are many hospitals right now which could be doing that."

U.S. public health officials have said a vaccine is probably a year to 18 months away. But Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases and member of the White House coronavirus task force, said in late April that it is conceivable, if a vaccine is soon developed, that it could be in wide distribution as early as January.

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Though the administration’s handling of the pandemic, particularly its ability to conduct widespread testing, has come under fierce scrutiny, the president tried to shift the blame to China and said the U.S. was ready to begin reopening.

“I’ll tell you one thing. We did the right thing and I really believe we saved a million and a half lives,” the president said. But he also broke with the assessment of his senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, saying it was “too soon to say” the federal government had overseen a “success story.”

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