Wear the Shoes of President Trump
President Trump faces two unwelcome enemies: a virus that as of May 11 has killed 79,552 Americans, and an economy in free fall.
The worst is not the Coronavirus Pandemic.
The danger of a Great Depression, with unemployment today greater than in 1935, is the real danger.
For that reason, President Trump has been applauding Governors who are opening up commerce in their States and criticizing those that have not. Michigan’s Governor is taking the President’s highest criticism.
And for good reason.
When demonstrators entered the Michigan Legislature with weapons, an alarm went out–“Next time they may use them!”
Divisions in American society, that I attribute frustration with arbitrary actions by “the Deep State,” were already high before the Coronavirus Pandemic.
Today, those divisions may lead to civil war unless popular fury isn’t released.
Some Governors are willing to take a chance and wait and see how many new infections–and deaths–occur if they open commerce.
There may be good news for them.
In Colorado the number of new hospitalizations, and secondly the rate of new deaths, peaked in mid-April. Fifty-nine percent of Colorado deaths have been in nursing homes not hospitals, and 78% of all Covid-19 deaths have been persons age 70 and above.
Less than 2% of deaths — 11 to date– have been under age 40, which suggests the mortality rate for Covid-19 ‘cases’ among the newly unemployed bartenders and restaurant workers is about .0003.
If you were Governor of a State, or Donald Trump, and read that the incidence of deaths from Covid-19 among our most exposed workers was .0003, would you open commerce in restaurants, bars and sporting events?