Trump says US would be in ‘massive depression’ if he’d listened to the scientists

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Donald Trump has said the US would be in a ‘massive depression’ if he had listened to the scientists on coronavirus while Dr Anthony Fauci told an interviewer he was ‘absolutely not’ surprised Trump had fallen ill from the virus.

As the president pitted the election as a ‘Trump super-recovery’ versus a ‘Biden depression’ at a rollicking rally in Nevada on Sunday, his top epidemiologist told 60 Minutes that Amy Coney Barrett’s bash at the White House was a ‘super-spreader event’. 

When asked if he was surprised that Trump tested positive for Covid-19 after the Rose Garden event, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said: ‘Absolutely not’.   

‘I was worried that he was going to get sick when I saw him in a completely precarious situation of crowded, no separation between people, and almost nobody wearing a mask. 

‘When I saw that on TV, I said, ‘Oh my goodness. Nothing good can come outta that, that’s gotta be a problem’. And then sure enough, it turned out to be a superspreader event.’ 

Fauci’s analysis comes as Trump held another campaign rally in Nevada, telling his supporters that if former Vice President Biden makes it into the Oval Office: ‘He’s gonna lock down. This guy wants to lock down.’

‘He’ll listen to the scientists. If I listened totally to the scientists, we would right now have a country that would be in a massive depression, instead we’re like a rocket ship. Take a look at the numbers.’

Cases are currently increasing across the US and have now surpassed 8.1 million. The death toll, which has remained steady this month after declining since August, is currently at more than 219,000.    

Health experts have been warning that the US is heading into its ‘darkest hour of the pandemic’ as the number of cases continue to surge to levels not seen since July. The US is currently averaging about 55,000 cases per day after rising steadily since mid-September. 

Deaths, however, are not increasing and have been averaging about 700 fatalities per day for more than a month. The current death rate, which is a lagging and can potentially rise several weeks after cases increase, is well below the April peak of nearly 2,000 fatalities a day. 

Nationwide hospitalizations have been increasing this month, which have been driven mostly by Midwestern states where infections have been surging. 

Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, gave a grim prognosis on Sunday night, saying he didn’t share Trump’s optimism about the virus.

Nearly 70,000 new cases were reported nationwide on Friday, which is the highest level since July during the summer peak. 

Osterholm said that figure was worrying and perhaps a sign of things to come, despite many arguing that this is a a result of increased testing capacity.

‘Friday we had 70,000 cases, matching the largest number we had seen back during the really serious peak in July. That number… we’re going to blow right through that. And between now and the holidays we will see numbers much much larger,’ Osterholm said.  

‘We’re not telling the full story. We do have vaccines and therapeutics coming down the pike, but when you look at the time period for that, the next six to 12 weeks are going to be the darkest of the pandemic,’ he told NBC.

‘Vaccines will not become available in any meaningful way until early to [the] third quarter of next year. And even then, about half of the US population at this point is skeptical of even taking the vaccine.’ 

Osterholm blamed the skepticism on a ‘major problem in messaging.’

He argued that Americans don’t have a ‘lead’ or ‘consolidated’ voice to guide them through the pandemic at the moment. 

Although the White House emerged as a solid front when it enacted the coronavirus task force back in January, the facade slowly waned as Trump ignored health experts’ guidelines and dissenting voices entered civil discourse.  

Trump and Fauci have publicly bumped heads over various issues before, although his latest remarks about the ‘super-spreader’ White House event are perhaps the starkest example to date.

Fauci also admitted in his 60 Minutes interview that the White House had restricted his media appearances throughout the pandemic. 

‘You know, I think you’d have to be honest and say yes. I certainly have not been allowed to go on many, many, many shows that have asked for me.’ 

However, Fauci did take the same line as Trump when asked if he would recommend another full lockdown for the nation, saying: ‘Things would have to get really, really bad’ before that was suggested. 

‘First of all, the country is fatigued with restrictions. So we want to use public health measures, not to get in the way of opening the economy, but to being a safe gateway to opening the economy,’ Fauci said. 

‘Those measures were not in place last month in the rose garden when President Trump announced the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.’  

He went on to state that Americans have more than two choices and do not have to decide between a complete shutdown or an unmitigated reopening of the economy. 

Instead, he claims, Americans should implement public health measures as they try to resume life as normal, even with the threat of the virus lingering.  

‘Let’s put ‘shutdown’ away and say, ‘We’re going to use public health measures to help us safely get to where we want to go”, he said.  

Fauci has been advocating for public health measures, including social distancing and mask wearing, for several months. 

He has blasted other experts who say those measures should be put to the side, so that the disease can spread in order to achieve herd immunity. 

Trump’s more laissez faire approach to eradicating the pandemic clashed with Fauci, who repeatedly called for Americans to adhere to social distancing and emphasized the importance of face masks. 

The pair’s most recent disagreement came over herd immunity, which was reportedly proposed to Trump by medical adviser Scott Atlas.

Several health experts have dismissed herd immunity as a viable solution, including Fauci, who called it ‘total nonsense,’ as well as ‘scientifically and ethically problematic.’

Fauci said in a GMA interview last week: ‘If you just let things rip and let the infection go – no masks, crowds – that quite frankly is ridiculous. 

‘What that will do is there will be so many people in the community that you can’t shelter, that you can’t protect, who are going to get sick and get serious consequences. 

‘If you talk to anybody who has any experience in epidemiology and infectious diseases they’ll tell you it’s risky and you’ll wind up with many more infections of vulnerable people, which will lead to hospitalizations and deaths.

‘I think we’ve got to look that square in the eye and say it’s nonsense.’ 

In Nevada Sunday, Trump kept the focus on Biden’s ‘corruption’ and the latest in the Hunter Biden saga, referring to the ‘laptop from hell.’ 

‘This is the most boring human being I’ve ever seen,’ Trump said of Biden, while also claiming he was running a ‘criminal enterprise’ alongside his son. 

‘The Bidens make ‘crooked’ Hillary Clinton look like an absolute amateur,’ Trump said, using a throwback insult from his successful 2016 campaign. 

Pointing a finger at Hunter, Trump said, ‘This guy’s a vacuum cleaner,’ alleging he was sucking up tons of foreign money. 

‘I call him the human vacuum cleaner,’ the president said to cheers and applause from the crowd of several thousand watching the president in the hot Nevada sun. 

The crowd started chanting ‘lock him up!’ referring to Biden and his son. 

‘They’re corrupt people. But Joe Biden is from a failed and corrupt political class,’ Trump reiterated in his fired up speech. 

Trump has been having a field day over a New York Post report that is supposed to be proof that Biden was in on his son Hunter’s foreign business deals while he was serving as President Barack Obama’s vice president. 

The emails were allegedly found on a laptop left at a shop with a copy of the harddrive given to Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. 

Federal authorities are now investigating whether the emails were connected to a foreign intelligence operation in a bid to sway the election.

The president called it the ‘laptop from hell.’ 

‘So a giant trove of emails show Hunter Biden making deals, setting up deals with his father Joe,’ Trump said at one point. 

‘Joe’s getting a piece of everything,’ Trump, at another moment, alleged. 

The alleged emails included one that alluded to a meeting between Joe Biden and Vadym Pozharsky an adviser for the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, where Hunter Biden served on the board. 

However, the Biden campaign says the meeting did not occur. 

On this three-day swing, Nevada was the only swing state that tilted toward the Democrats in 2016, with 47.9 per cent of voters in the state picking Clinton and 45.5 for Trump. 

On Saturday he did back-to-back rallies in Michigan and Wisconsin. And on Monday, Trump will do another two rallies in Arizona, a state that he won in 2016, but looks ripe for the Democrats’ picking.  

The president woke up Sunday at his Las Vegas hotel and attended church services at the International Church of Las Vegas before jetting off to Orange County, California for several hours to raise money for his campaign 16 days before the presidential election.  

The Democrats and Biden have far outraised the Republican National Committee and Trump in August and September.  

In Carson City, the president suggested the Democrats were cheating – and their fundraising was like a ‘quid pro quo,’ aiming the comment at Biden. 

Trump’s impeachment revolved around whether there was a ‘quid pro quo’ when the president held up military aid to Ukraine to pressure the country’s president to announce investigations into Hunter and Joe Biden.    

Upon landing in Reno, Nevada, Trump gave reporters a quick update on the on-again, off-again stimulus talks taking place back in Washington, D.C. 

‘I think Nancy Pelosi maybe is coming along we’ll find out,’ Trump said. ‘Want to do it at a bigger number than she wants. That doesn’t mean all the Republicans agree with me but I think they will in the end if she would go along, I think they would too, on stimulus.’ 

‘So we’ll see what happens,’ Trump added.   

That didn’t stop Trump from attacking the House speaker at the Carson City event, making fun of her for not wanting his ‘wall’ but living in a gating community and eating fancy ice cream. 

He also suggested Pelosi’s recent talk about the 25th Amendment, which came after the president was hospitalized with the coronavirus, was actually so Democrats can dispose of Biden for his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, should they win. 

‘Biden is gone-zo,’ Trump said, a reference to the 77-year-old’s age. ”Can you imagine having Kamala?’ he added, calling her the most liberal member of Congress.  

The president also hit out at some Congressional Republicans, like GOP Sen. Ben Sasse, who was extremely critical of the president on a call with constituents. 

‘We have some stupid people, you know,’ Trump said. 

‘Now we have this guy Sasse. He wants to make a statement. Little Ben Sasse,’ Trump jabbed. ‘Republicans needs to stick together better.’ 

Trump ended his rally boasting, ‘The best is yet to come’. 

‘Proud citizens like you helped build this country and together we’re taking back this country. So with your help, your devotion and your drive we’re going to keep on winning, winning, winning!’ he said as attendees joined in his chant.  

Masks were not widespread at Trump’s Nevada rally to prevent the spread of COVID-19. 

And Trump warned that Biden would be more heavy-handed in dealing with the virus, which continues to see new spikes.  

‘If he comes in, Carson City will become a ghosttown,’ Trump warned. ‘The Christmas season will be cancelled.’