"The Metrics Are In Here," Trump Said, Pointing at His Head

** Before I repeat the Huffington Post's report on today's White House COVID-19 Task Force briefing to the United States, I'd like to say something about one of the President's Tweets earlier today.  At 11:42 am EDT @realDonaldTrump sent ot the following Tweet:  "Nobody wants to say that if Elizabeth Warren gets out of the race before Super Tuesday, Crazy Bernie Sanders wins virtually every state in a blowout...NOT EVEN CLOSE! I haven't heard one member of the Fake News Establishment even mention this irrefutable fact. FAKE NEWS!"
    My comment: Was this sent from a time warp that only the 45th President lives in?  Elizabeth Warren dropped out of the 2020 Presidential race on 5 March - which was 36 days ago.  Bernie Sanders dropped his Presidential earlier this week, in April 2020.  Can anyone guess what planet Trump's brain is on at the moment?  Certainly NOT Earth!  **

Source: The Huffington Post - Coronavirus coverage - 10 April 2020 at 5:24 pm EDT
    Written by Kevin Robillard

"Trump Says Answer For When To Reopen U.S. Economy Is In His Head
The president said he's listening to coronavirus experts, but also cited repeatedly debunked claims and lies during his daily press conference.

   President Donald Trump on Friday suggested he would use his own judgment, not any particular economic or health metrics, to decide when to reopen the country.
   Asked by a reporter at his administration's daily briefing on the COVID-19 pandemic what metrics he would use to determine when to reopen the economy, Trump pointed at his head.  "The metrics right here," he said.  "That's my metrics.  That's all I can do."  Trump said that he would take the opinions of his medical advisers - including Surgeon General Jerome Adams and Dr. Anthony Fauci - into account, but would also listen to the guidance of Vice President Mike Pence and others.
   The COVID-19 pandemic has shut down wide swaths of the American economy and has caused 18,000 deaths in the U.S. so far.  Some Trump advisers and business leaders have lobbied the president to end the social distancing measures and closures meant to battle the spread of the disease soon in order to start rebuilding the economy and help the president win reelection.  But many medical experts have warned full economic activity won't be able to resume for a month or more, and fear a second spike in the number of infections and deaths if government officials attempt to rush the reopening of society.
   The president also repeated his false assertions that the U.S. is leading the world in testing for COVID-19 and that rural areas with few reported cases of the disease don't need resources to conduct more tests.  "There's not a lot of issues with testing," Trump said at the briefing.  "You don't have to test every person in the state of Iowa.  You don't need to test every single person to say let's open up, and say let's get the tractors moving, let's get the corn."
   Medical experts believe the spread of the virus, an potentially the death count, is underestimated because of a lack of COVID-19 tests in many parts of the country.  Trump, who promised last month that every American who wants a test would soon be able to access one, has lately downplayed the need for a national testing regime before the nation's economy reopens.
   "We're leading the world now in testing, by far," Trump said.  While the U.S. has conducted more tests than any other country, a smaller portion of the country's population has been tested than in nations like Switzerland, Germany, and Canada. "

***** Another note from BND -  The United States has tested a little over 2 million people - less than 2,005,000 in total.  The US currently has a population of over 331 million people. (About .6% of the population has been tested  - a little over one-half of a percent.)  And Quest Diagnostics, the top commercial laboratory in the US, has a backlog of more than 160,000 COVID-19 tests waiting to be processed...  *****