Day 1,202: Trump to phase out coronavirus task force by end of May as death toll to double by August

More than 70,000 people in the U.S. have died as a result of the coronavirus. The latest projections by the federal government have that number surging to double that by August as the Trump administration is pushing states to reopen.

Unwilling and unable to lead on the crisis from the beginning, it should be no surprise that Donald Trump and his administration are pulling back even further. The White House confirmed its coronavirus task force will be winding down by the end of the month.

Despite growing evidence that the pandemic is still raging, administration officials said on Tuesday that they had made so much progress in bringing it under control that they planned to wind down the coronavirus task force in the coming weeks and focus the White House on restarting the economy.

Vice President Mike Pence, who has led the task force for two months, said it would probably wrap up its work around the end of the May, and shift management of the public health response back to the federal agencies whose work it was created to coordinate.

Apparently missing the fact that the coronavirus is decimating huge swaths of the country, Pence added of the disbanding, “It really is all a reflection of the tremendous progress we’ve made as a country.”

Trump seemed to imply that the task force’s cautious approach was the reason to disband it. When asked why the task force was ending, he responded, “Because we can’t keep our country closed for the next five years.”

For all intents and purposes, the task force died on April 23 when Trump took the briefing room podium and floated treatment options like “hit[ting] the body” with ultraviolet light and injectable household disinfectants. Those comments were so widely panned, Trump was humbled into near-silence for a day.

It’s hard to not see the eliminating of the task force as anything but a partisan ploy to help Trump’s reelection chances considering the imminent dangers posed by the disease. By pushing the daily briefings and task force into the rearview mirror, Trump is hoping that death and infection rates become old news. It’s his latest craven policy that undercuts the safety of Americans for his own well-being.

1,202 days in, 260 to go

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