Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same. – President Ronald Reagan
FoxNews.com reports that
The Trump administration is in talks over potentially winding down the coronavirus task force, even as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to grow in the U.S. and as sectors of the economy begin to reopen.
President Trump defended the talks Tuesday while speaking to the media in Phoenix, Ariz., where he was touring a mask production facility, saying his advisers were continuing to examine the virus “very closely,” and the doctors on the task force would continue to make their voices heard. He also said, “We can’t keep our country closed for the next five years… We’ve learned a lot about the coronavirus.”
The president also denied his message was, “mission accomplished.”
Vice President Pence, who has led the task force, said Tuesday that White House officials were “having conversations” about finishing up the group’s business and, instead, having “agencies take over the work” — specifically mentioning the Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA]. Pence said, though, that the earliest the agencies could take over the group’s responsibilities would be Memorial Day or early June, if the task force itself were to be discontinued.
A White House official told Fox News the White House has been shifting focus toward re-opening the country, as outlined in Phase 1 of the administration’s “Opening Up America Again” guidelines. The official said it would be an ongoing shift over the next several weeks.
The official told Fox News that doctors will continue to play an “important advisory role” in the process, as the administration has aimed to “make sure medical guidelines are kept up to date” and Americans are able to safely return to work. The official stressed that doctors were not being removed from the equation and called any reports reflecting that “false.”
The official told Fox News that members of the task force will continue to provide input, but the group will not be meeting as regularly as they had been at the outset of the pandemic. The official added that the White House’s focus was shifting towards vaccines, therapeutics, testing and re-opening the economy.
The task force, according to the official, was always meant to be a temporary arrangement. The official stressed that experts will continue to provide input, even while not meeting each day.
The task force has included Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Dr. Deborah Birx, who served as the U.S. Global AIDS coordinator under both the Trump and Obama administrations; U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams; Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar; Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield and more.
The task force had delivered near-daily briefings from the White House for nearly two months, sometimes lasting for more than an hour, providing updates on the impact of the coronavirus and the Trump administration’s response.
But, those briefings also became a source of controversy.
Trump led many of them, taking criticism for spending chunks of time touting his administration’s accomplishments and sparring with some of the media. Perhaps the most controversial moment came last month when Trump seemingly suggested that a product as simple as household disinfectant potentially could be used for treatment in humans for coronavirus.
The president later said he was just being “sarcastic.” But, Lysol and even the Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] put out statements reminding people that disinfectants should not be ingested or injected into the human body. Shortly afterward, the White House stopped hosting the briefings on a regular basis.
I personally believe that focusing the experts in the Coronavirus Task Force on a new mission of reopening America would be a great idea.
I firmly believe that, while no death from the virus has been unimportant, the estimates of death toll of the coronavirus were greatly overestimated.
It is time to tailor coronavirus safety restrictions to what is happening in different areas of the country, not just treat every region of America as if it was the sardine can that is New York City, where the homeless sleep in the subway and the mayor is a Communist.
Speaking for the state where I live, Mississippi, tomorrow, the governor is going to allow restaurants to reopen at 50% occupancy with tables 6 feet apart and is going to start allowing “drive-in church services”.
That’s an improvement, but, I still need a haircut and I can’t fellowship with my fellow believers while we are isolated in different cars.
“Virtual hugs” and waving hands emojis on Facebook just doesn’t cut it.
America, using common sense, HAS to return to some sense of normalcy before we lose our nation to the Far Left Democrats and their puppet governors, who want to turn us all into a Marist Proletariat so that they can grow rich and powerful as the Soviet Politboro was.
You think I am kidding?
Have you been watching the overstepping governors in the blue states as they trample our Constitution?
If you have been on any Facebook Political Pages, you will find Liberals cheering them on, oblivious of the trampling of the rights of American citizens.
Instead, that have been calling those Americans who entered the Michigan Capitol Building carrying legal firearms, thugs because they dared stand up against Gov. Whitmer.
President Trump is right.
“We can’t keep our country closed for the next five years.”
It is time to starting opening back up or else we will be playing right into the hands of those who would “radically change” our Constitutional Republic into a Marxist Nation.
President Ronald Reagan said,
Man is not free unless government is limited.
What we have witnessed through the overstepping of some of our states’ governors during the last two months has proven the Gipper to have been a prophet.
Until He Comes,
KJ