"President Trump told us a couple of days ago he expects we will be able to lift the restrictions "by Easter". I doubt he would have made that statement if he didn't have knowledge from the C19TF to inform his decision. And that knowledge isn't restricted to the C19TF... as I said in the beginning of this piece, there are a LOT of doctors and medical researchers out there who are reaching this same conclusion. "
Doc, I agree with most of what you say in your excellent post but, differ with some points. We DO need statistically-valid facts before decent projections can be made. I have listened to President Trump's statements over the past 3 years and find him often making statements that "fact checks" find to be misleading (e.g.:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/28/trump-coronavirus-misleading-claims ). He just seem to say whatever crosses his mind at the moment. Dr. Anthony Fauci appears to offer a more valid assessment and, he seems to have been replaced on the podium by Dr. Deborah Birx with her more palatable assessments.
There are some indicators regarding the trajectory of the Corona Virus pandemic, as shown by the Johns Hopkins Corona Virus Map (see:
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6 ). By clicking on the US confirmed cases and then enlarging the graph at the bottom right of the screen, you can observe the daily growth of cases and that the rate-of-confirmed-cases is exponentially increasing.
Yes, this virus will eventually die out or subside, but the when is very questionable. I fear that we will have this situation well into the spring and maybe longer, until a vaccine can be developed and mass-produced. As the old saying goes, "Plan for the worst, hope for the best."
