Trump says up to 100,000 Americans may die from coronavirus

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday he now believes as many as 100,000 Americans could die in the coronavirus pandemic, after the death toll passed his earlier estimates, but said he was confident a vaccine would be developed by the year’s end.

Trump alternated during a two-hour virtual town hall broadcast by FOX News between forecasting a rapid recovery for the U.S. economy and casting blame for the pandemic’s spread on China, where the disease is believed to have originated.

The COVID-19 illness, caused by the new coronavirus, has sickened more than 1.1 million in the United States and killed more than 67,000 Americans, shut wide swaths of society, including most schools and many businesses.

“We’re going to lose anywhere from 75, 80 to 100,000 people. That’s a horrible thing,” said Trump, who as recently on Friday had said he hoped fewer than 100,000 Americans would die and earlier in the week had talked about 60,000 to 70,000 deaths.

According to Reuters,  about half the states have now moved toward at least partial lifting of shutdowns as the number of new cases of the COVID-19 illness has begun to drop or level off and as citizens agitate for relief from restrictions that have sent the economy into a tailspin.

“We can’t stay closed as a country (or) we’re not gonna have a country left,” Trump said.

Trump has criticized FOX recently, casting the conservative-leaning network as insufficiently supportive. He faced few tough questions in the event, which gave him a new format to reach the public while he is unable to hold campaign rallies and after he faced widespread criticism for his combative daily briefings.

In an assessment that clashes with those of some public health experts, Trump said he believed that by the end of the year there would be a vaccine against COVID-19.

“I think we’re going to have a vaccine by the end of the year. The doctors would say, well you shouldn’t say that,” Trump said. “I’ll say what I think … I think we’ll have a vaccine sooner than later.”

Many health experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, have cautioned that a vaccine is likely a year to 18 months away.

There is an “incredibly small” chance of having a highly effective vaccine or treatment for the coronavirus within the next year, England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said on April 22.

Trump also said he wanted students to return to schools and colleges in the autumn, even as he acknowledged the possibility of a resurgence of the disease.

“We’ll put out the embers, we’ll put out whatever it may be. We may have to put out a fire,” he said.

Speaking the day before the Senate returns to Washington, Trump said it was possible that federal coronavirus aid could rise to $6 trillion from the nearly $3 trillion Congress has already passed to try to ease the heavy economic toll of the crisis.

“There is more help coming. There has to be,” he said.

Democrats have made clear they want to provide a sizable rescue package for state and local governments as part of a broader bill – one that could total over $2 trillion – while some Republicans criticized the idea as unreasonably expensive.

“We will be doing infrastructure and I told Steve (Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin) just today we are not doing anything unless we get a payroll tax cut,” Trump said.

Trump, who has been criticized for not moving faster early in the year to stop the spread of the disease, sought to blunt the criticism by blaming China.

Trump said China had made a “horrible mistake” without saying precisely what this was or providing specific evidence for his assertion.

Earlier in the day, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said there was “a significant amount of evidence” that COVID-19 emerged from a Chinese laboratory, but did not dispute U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusion that it was not man-made.

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

Buy and read digital replicas of your TRIBUNE titles by subscribing through E-VENDING

Clarence Peters Invited For Questioning Over Dancer, Kodak’s Death
Popular video director, Clarence Peters, Tribune Online gathered, has been invited for questioning by the Lagos State Police Command, over the death of dancer, Love Divine, popularly known as Kodak, who was electrocuted in his studio. Kodak, who is a popular dancer within the Nigerian music scene, allegedly died of… Read full story

MONDAY LINES: Death And Dying Emirs
DYING is nothing; choosing the right time to die, if we can, means a whole lot. This coronavirus season is a very wrong time to go – undisturbed. You die now, you leave importunate questions blowing in the air. The Emir of Kaura-Namoda in Zamfara State died on Sunday morning. Was he a victim of COVID-19, the current… Read full story

EDITORIAL: The Kano Mass Deaths
AMID the ongoing efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic in the country, a strange cloud has enveloped Kano State. In the last three weeks, the state has witnessed massive deaths of people in very controversial circumstances. The deaths first became public knowledge following the release of a video clip… Read full story

JAMB Remits N3.5 Billion To FG For 2020
THE Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has made an interim remittance of N3.5 billion to the Federal Government consolidated account for 2020. This is in addition to more than N3.5 billion paid to candidates as reduction of cost of ePIN as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari… Read full story

CBN, Bankers’ Committee Suspend Lay-Offs In Banks
A special meeting of the Bankers’ Committee was convened on Saturday, to further review the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Nigerian banking industry a statement from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) disclosed on Sunday… Read full story

Court Shuts Church Indefinitely In Abuja Over Lockdown Violation, As Pastor, Others Evade Arrest
A mobile court sitting in Jabi, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, on Sunday, ordered for an indefinite closure of The Shekinah Glory Church, located opposite the popular Citec Estate, Jabi, for violating lockdown… Read full story

COVID-19: 50 Almajiris From Kano Brought To Kaduna Tested Positive ― El-Rufai
Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has said that 15 more almajiris that were brought from Kano to Kaduna have tested positive for COVID-19. This was even as he confirmed that the number of almajiris tested… Read full story

Remdesivir: What The NAFDAC DG Said
In a report entitled “COVID-19: We are not likely to use Ebola drug for patients — NAFDAC” published in the Sunday Tribune edition, we quoted the Director-General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, as saying that remdesivir, the drug approved by… Read full story

Abducted Twins Of Oyo Cleric, Akeugbagold, Released After £100,000 Ransom Negotiation
After eight days of dwelling in the bush with their abductors, the twins of former Chairman of the Oyo State Pilgrims Welfare Board (Muslim wing), Taofeek Akeugbagold were released at about 5.30 am on Sunday. The twins were picked near the bush at around Mufutau Laninhun College of Education area on the Lagos-Ibadan… Read full story

Leading With Presence — 2
COVID-19 has changed the world and the way we do things. The changes it has brought upon humanity will be our new norm for some time to come. It is as if it was what the world needed to remind us that the only constant thing about life is change. Social distancing means we make less physical contacts… Read full story

Things That Won’t Change Post COVID-19 (Part 3)
This is the third piece I am penning on this life-changing subject that has started helping a lot of people in Nigeria and beyond. So far, I have written on three non-negotiable values that will not change post COVID-19: vision, loyalty and confidentiality. The fourth value I am writing on is that of assiduousness and… Read full story

Reflections On The Post-Coronavirus International Economic Order
THE novel coronavirus pandemic has been the biggest global economic shock since the 1929 Wall Street Crash. In fact, its ramifications might be even bigger, given that, unlike the 1929 crash, our world is today an integrated global marketplace… Read full story