President Trump downplayed the risk of the pandemic, misleading U.S. citizens and causing them to turn away from precautionary measures

So far, 2 million people have been infected with COVID-19, according to CNN Health. By October of 2020, they warn, just a few months down the line, the U.S. will likely have endured over 200,000 deaths.^[1] Although the globe is still in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic and the U.S. is no exception, President Trump is intent on lighting a fire under the American economy and “reopening.” Now that the official coronavirus task force is following Trump’s lead and condoning economic focus, there is an absence of even a general nationwide consensus on how to handle the immense threat COVID-19 continues to pose. (White) states have the say on how strictly they follow suggested protocol. According to Vanity Fair, many states are racing to find medical equipment like ventilators with little to no “guidance” from President Trump.^[2] There has been substantial uproar over President Trump’s discourse on the pandemic. According to CNBC reports, during a conference explaining new vaccine development plans in May, President Trump both confirmed “we’re going to have a vaccine in the pretty near future” and added the clause “if we don’t, we’re going to be like so many other cases where you had a problem come in, it’ll go away at some point…” Previously, he has asserted that sometimes a vaccine helps, and sometimes you don’t need it, a misleading and confusing comment to make as the nation awaits his word on the state of national health and immunization likelihood. Leaders of President Trump’s new Operation Warp Speed to procure a vaccine, Moncef Slaoui and Gustave Perna confirmed that this is a “Herculean task.” Other health experts remind the public, contrary to President Trump’s claims that this will all just go away, that we may see dormancy in the summer and surgent waves in the fall.^[3] Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warns that “reopening” will likely only feed the incoming surge of COVID-19 cases. Yet, President Trump is facing re-election and his attention has turned to campaign manager Brad Parscale. If Trump wants to remain in office, there is a certain anxiety in closing his first term with a weak economy, seeing as he was originally elected for his business-savvy nature. During Trump’s Fox News special “America Together: Returning to Work,” it became clear that the President’s focus is on reestablishing the economy rather than acknowledging the daunting and rising death toll.^[4]