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Someone must have gotten through to the president about the seriousness of the novel coronavirus epidemic, as evidenced by his speech tonight. Whether out of concern for the public’s health, which is doubtful, or over fear the economic effects of the epidemic will damage his chances of re-election, his speech tonight listed many of the precautions health officials have been trying to promote for days.

The president opened his speech tonight by terming his response to the epidemic as “unprecedented;” true, but far from the way in which it was intended. He acted as if he was out of his element and appeared puppet-like as he recited words from a teleprompter in a dry, monotone voice—words surely written by someone else. He said his government is “cutting massive amounts of red tape to make anti-viral therapies available in record time,” saying “these treatments will significantly reduce the impact and reach of the virus,” overlooking the fact that experts say the soonest a vaccine might be available is a year to 18 months and an anti-viral therapy at this point exists only in trump’s imagination. The president’s unrealistically hopeful claim concerning the timeline for the development of a vaccine or treatment is in keeping with his equally mythical reassurance, in direct contradiction of statements by health officials, that “the risk of the virus is very, very low.”

The president said “smart action today will reduce the spread of the virus tomorrow.” Also true, but smart action yesterday might have served to lessen its reach today, along with adequate numbers of testing kits, which the South Koreans seem to have had no problem producing for their population, producing two thousand test kits per million compared to our meager five per million so far. The president spoke of practicing social distancing, yet he as recently as two days ago was modeling the opposite. His announced travel ban regarding flights from Europe overlooks the fact the virus is already here.

Rather than treating the epidemic as an economic issue, the president should be treating it as a public health issue. Instead of pledging economic relief to corporations, he should have spoken of increasing testing capacity and readying our health system for an influx of new cases.

To his credit, trump, at last and at least, seemed to be taking a more realistic approach than he had previously, minus the nonsensical parts, in responding to what is becoming a truly frightening situation facing the nation and the world.

Tim Konrad