MSNBC Medical Correspondent Campbell on U.S. Economy: ‘We’re Not Reopening Anytime Soon’

MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” chief medical correspondent Dr. Dave Campbell on Monday rejected President Donald Trump’s overtures to make a May 1 target date for reopening the American economy.

Campbell, sounding a different tune than the president, declared the economy was “not reopening anytime soon,” adding normalcy will not be reached for an even longer amount of time due to slowly rolling everything out.

“We … know that this hope, that this is going away in the summer and will resurge in the fall, is false hope,” Campbell stated. “We’re already in mid-April. The people who are sick today and going in the hospital will be there for several weeks. We do not have adequate testing, certainly not in Palm Beach County, and absolutely not across the country. We don’t have adequate viral testing. We don’t have adequate antibody testing.”

He continued, “There are lots of steps that could happen where the federal government, Secretary Azar, if he had his way, could have accelerated the response. We could have more testing, whether it’s for the virus or for the antibodies. We could be preparing better to reopen the economy — how about to reopen doctor’s offices, how about to reopen surgery centers so you can have your hip replacement? You aren’t going to have that any time soon, Joe. The short answer that you asked is, no, we’re not reopening anytime soon. And when we do, it will be this phased, rolling back of not normalcy, but how about just acceptability for the new, local, federal and state way that we have to govern ourselves and live our lives.”

Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent

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