A series of missteps during Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic is triggering fears among some advisers that the president is damaging his reelection prospects with his communications during the crisis.
"In general, models of this sort should not be taken as literal predictions of the future. They can be useful tools for gauging the likely trend line of an emerging disease and the likely impact of various response strategies. But models are inherently subject to error since they are based on numerous assumptions that scientists can only make educated guesses about right now."
"This is about as catastrophically stupid an idea that anyone could ever imagine," said Mark Cohen, director of retail studies at Columbia University Business School.
The Justice Department, working with private companies, has disrupted "hundreds" of websites that were exploiting the virus to commit fraud and other crimes, the department announcedyesterday. The malicious sites posed as government agencies running relief programs, legitimate companies and even the American Red Cross.
The peril of buying unvetted tests was underscored by the British government's recent $20 million purchase of antibody tests from China that didn't work. Even for high-quality tests, scientists say, they don't know the level of antibodies needed to make someone immune from the virus or how long protection might last.
