Washington - 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 US 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.
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 criticised 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 criticised 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 criticised 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 US intelligence agencies' conclusion that it was not man-made.