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Trump turns toward a third season of coronavirus with a tale of success - POLITICO
Aug 13, 2020 2 mins, 55 secs
President Donald Trump is heading into fall and winter months that could prove even more perilous for the nation, with the spread of Covid-19 coinciding with flu season — a dangerous combination public health officials have long been dreading.

A pandemic summer marked by testing delays, supply shortages and continued spread of the coronavirus has set the stage for a disheartening start to the fall across much of the U.S., with the shuttering of schools and cancellation of college football seasons that officials had once hoped would herald a return to normalcy more than six months into the crisis.

One former senior administration official said the White House is attempting to convey the perception of control — even as a handful of top aides including chief of staff Mark Meadows express skepticism privately about guidance from the government’s leading scientists.

“Covid is the White House’s focus right now,” said one senior White House official.

“I would say that they are comparing things to where they were previously,” said a senior Republican close to the White House.

Trump is heading into fall and winter months that could prove even more perilous for the nation, with the spread of Covid-19 coinciding with flu season — a dangerous combination public health officials have long been dreading.

“The fall could be incredibly gruesome,” said Yale School of Medicine epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves, adding that the Trump administration largely squandered the summer months, leaving the nation no better protected than it was in June.

The White House in recent weeks has moved to sideline its less optimistic health officials and rely more heavily on Dr.

Scott Atlas, a new senior adviser whose Fox News appearances and vocal push to reopen schools caught the attention of top aides such as Jared Kushner and Hope Hicks.

Deborah Birx, chief executive of the International Development Finance Corporation Adam Boehler, testing expert Brad Smith and top communication aides, according to the senior White House official.

The goal of the small group, the official said, is to ensure the White House can make quicker daily decisions on the Covid-19 response.

But the group also happens to exclude many of the administration’s top health officials such as the heads of the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr.

“President Trump has led an historic, whole-of-America coronavirus response — resulting in 100,000 ventilators procured, sourcing critical PPE for our frontline heroes and a robust testing regime resulting in more than double the number of tests than any other country in the world,” said White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews.

Doug Ducey initially advocated for trying to fully reopen schools — the state is now urging counties must to clear three benchmarks for the controlling the virus’ spread before school districts resume in-person classes.

Twenty-two Mississippi schools have reported coronavirus cases already, a number that the state’s health officer said Monday is likely to grow.

The White House later debuted a vague new set of recommendations for schools that included basic advice like ensuring students and staff “understand the symptoms of COVID-19.”

“We want to be very, very safe and careful,” Trump said Wednesday, in a sharp contrast to his Twitter mandate just a week ago to “OPEN THE SCHOOLS!!!” At the briefing on Wednesday, Trump said his administration was exploring the idea of directing federal school payments to parents instead of districts to give parents options if their local school did not open

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