Donald Trump wants to reopen the American economy, and he has set May 1st as the date he wants to begin doing that. Unfortunately, that is simply not feasible.He has been talking to corporate executives in the last few days, hoping they can give him an idea of how he can reopen businesses across the country. I doubt that he likes what many of them have told him -- that the businesses cannot reopen without testing.
They are right. There must be a massive amount of testing done before businesses can reopen -- testing to protect both workers and customers. Without that testing, no one can be sure they are not putting themselves in danger, and recent polls have shown people will be reticent to return to working or shopping in person until they are sure they won't be endangering themselves.
Weeks ago, Trump promised that millions of tests were on the way -- and that soon anyone wanting to be tested could get tested. That has not happened. Currently, in spite of Trump's boasts about testing, only about 1% of the population has been tested. And no one can get a test without having symptoms of Coronavirus sickness. That's not going to work. Many millions more people, especially those without symptoms, must be tested before the economy can be reopened.
When asked about why more testing has not be done, Trump tried to shift the blame. He said it is the job of each state's governor to see that testing is done. Those governors are willing to initiate and oversee massive testing, but they can't do that without having enough tests. And it is the job of the president to make sure there are enough tests in every state -- even if he has to use the Defense Production Act to do it.
It's not the governors' fault that more testing has not been done. It is Trump's fault for not providing the massive number of tests that he promised. It's just one more broken promise from Trump, and demonstrates a failure of leadership.
Where are the tests? The economy cannot reopen without them. If Trump wants businesses to reopen, then he must keep his promises. Unfortunately, while Trump is good at making promises, he is terrible at keeping them.
