President Donald Trump is suggesting the United States should ease up on measures to control the spread of coronavirus starting next week, because social distancing is hurting the economy – a message that contradicts warnings from public-health officials and nearly all other top politicians.

The U.S. has the third-highest number of coronavirus cases in the world after China and Italy, with more than 30,000 people confirmed to have been infected and more than 400 dead from COVID-19.

President signaled on Twitter that he might lift federal guidelines that urge people to avoid gatherings of more than 10 people and not eat in restaurants and bars.

“WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF,” Mr. Trump tweeted late Sunday evening. “AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!”

He then proceeded to retweet several Twitter followers who suggested he should end measures meant to contain the virus.

PLAY VIDEO2:06President Donald Trump is considering measures to reopen the U.S. economy, even as the highly contagious coronavirus is spreading rapidly and hospitals are bracing for a wave of virus-related deaths.REUTERS

Mr. Trump issued the guidelines last Monday, meaning the 15-day period would end next Tuesday.

Even some of the President’s allies rebuked him. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch White House loyalist, said Mr. Trump could “undercut” efforts to fight the virus by ending social distancing.

“President Trump’s best decision was stopping travel from China early on. I hope we will not undercut that decision by suggesting we back off aggressive containment policies within the United States,” he tweeted.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, also a Republican, spent Monday morning tweeting messages from public health officials and local celebrities urging people to practice social distancing, using a #StayHomeOhio hashtag.

“We haven’t faced an enemy like we are facing today in 102 years. We are at war,” he wrote.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also delivered the exact opposite message as Mr. Trump Monday, telling Canadians at a new conference: “Enough is enough. Go home and stay home.”

Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, whose state is dealing with the brunt of U.S. COVID-19 cases, said his citizens must “make peace with” the prospect of staying at home for the foreseeable future. “This is a new reality,” he told a news conference in the state capital of Albany.

Mr. Cuomo said that an indefinite shutdown “isn’t sustainable for the economy” and he was considering at some point allowing younger people or others less susceptible to infection to return to work. But he said current restrictions, which have seen all but the most essential businesses close, are necessary.

“I have no second thoughts on going to zero non-essential workers,” he said. “I’m sure there will be political consequences. I know people are angry about it … frankly, I don’t even care about that. I know I did the right thing.”

Leana Wen, a public-health expert at George Washington University, said Mr. Trump’s words could prove dangerous at a critical time. The country is currently in a “narrow window” to get the pandemic under control, she said.

“Right now is exactly the wrong time to be sending mixed messages. It’s the wrong time to be dialling back the measures that have been put into place which, frankly, are not nearly strict enough to control the spread of COVID-19 in the United States,” said Dr. Wen, who is also an emergency room physician and the former top public-health official for the city of Baltimore. “Things are going to get much worse this week. They are going to get much worse the week after.”

Even if Mr. Trump cannot personally lift the shutdown orders, most of which have been imposed by state and local governments, his words have significant influence over the behaviour of his supporters. After the President last week touted an unproven treatment for COVID-19, hydroxychloroquine, prescriptions for the drug spiked.

“There are a lot of people for whom the President is the most credible messenger,” she said. “We know he has an outsized influence over millions and millions of people. So his words really matter. And so it’s critical for all of our leaders to have the same message, which is a message that’s based on truth, fact and science.”

Mr. Trump’s comments are a return to his original attempts to minimize the seriousness of the coronavirus.

At one news conference in February, he insisted that the number of cases in the U.S. were “going very substantially down, not up,” when in fact cases were going up. At a campaign rally, he also insisted that concerns over the virus were a “new hoax” by his Democratic political opponents.

The President appeared to pivot last week, when he issued social-distancing guidelines.

But some of his allies have started to call for coronavirus containment measures to be lifted to avoid further hurting the economy.

The Wall Street Journal, an often pro-Trump outlet owned by Rupert Murdoch, wrote in an editorial last week that “federal and state officials need to start adjusting their anti-virus strategy now to avoid an economic recession.”

Mr. Trump has also continued to take fire for not doing enough to fight the pandemic.

Mr. Cuomo also called on Mr. Trump Monday to use the Defense Production Act to make factories produce more respirators and other medical equipment states need to fight the pandemic. So far, the White House has refused to do this, insisting it is actually up to individual states to buy the equipment themselves.

Mr. Cuomo said forcing states to go it alone would allow suppliers to jack up prices and force the public to pay more than necessary.

“Why are we competing? Let the federal government put in place the federal Defense Production Act,” he said. “This is a national emergency … you cannot continue to do these supplies on an ad-hoc basis.”

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