This week, the Trump administration lowered the number of projected COVID-19 deaths to approximately 60,000, a far cry from the original death count of 100,000 to 200,000. According to MSNBC host Chris Hayes, the original projections may have been a conspiratorial ploy to make President Trump look like a hero.
On his Twitter account Wednesday, the “All In” host laid out a most bizarre theory that makes no sense when examined.
“The most cynical interpretation of all this, one I can’t quite bring myself to accept, is they rolled out the model showing 100k deaths after they knew it would be less than that so they could anchor everyone to that # and take a victory lap when ‘only’ tens of thousands died,” Hayes wrote.
The most cynical interpretation of all this, one I can't quite bring myself to accept, is they rolled out the model showing 100k deaths after they knew it would be less than that so they could anchor everyone to that # and take a vicotry lap when "only" tens of thousands died. https://t.co/hYiUCHhO5g
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) April 8, 2020
For that theory to have any sway, it would have to explain why on earth President Trump and his team would put out an inflated number, scare the living daylights out of people, and grind the economy to an utter standstill just so he can take a “victory lap” on top of a pile of economic destruction. It would also have to account for the dozens of experts who pushed those numbers long before the Trump administration instituted the social distancing guidelines.
Hayes, who has not deleted the tweet, took a brutal scolding for his suggestion, with many predicting that this may become the new media talking point if President Trump and his team bring this crisis to an end.
“You lack a soul, a conscience, and any semblance of integrity,” said Jason Rantz of KTTH.
“The central model was from IHME,” said one user. “A University of Washington research center. Imperial college model originally predicted up to 2.2 million deaths. That’s a lot of people in on the conspiracy.”
“If you watched the press briefings you would know that they said repeatedly their goal was to be significantly lower than those numbers. Dr. Fauci only said it a half a dozen times,” said another user.
Responding to another user, Chris clarified that he does not accept the theory and only notes that Trump’s behavior has been “unnerving.”
“I said I can’t bring myself to accept it! But he’s been very very weird about ‘coming in under the model’ in this unnerving, disassociated way,” Hayes later said.
As reported by The Daily Wire’s Amanda Prestigiacomo, the White House updated its coronavirus projection models on Wednesday, lowering the death count and hospitalizations by steady margins: from 93,531 deaths to 81,766 deaths to 60,415 deaths.
“Moreover, the projected total hospital bed shortage decreased from 34,654 to 15,852 (a revised number from April 5), and the so-called ‘peak’ of hospital usage was pushed up from April 15 to April 11,” reported Prestigiacomo. “The peak daily death toll was also moved up to April 12, from the revised April 16 date.”
Though Dr. Fauci has made it clear life will be significantly altered over the next year, he did express optimism that public life will reopen again.
“You know, it is unpredictable, but you can get a feel for it if we start talking about the things where the curve goes down,” Fauci said during the Tuesday task force briefing. “How we respond and what kind of a rebound we see or don’t see, I think is going to have a lot of influence probably more immediately on things like summer camps than it does in the fall.”
“I fully expect – though, I’m humble enough to know that I can’t accurately predict – that by the time we get to the fall that we will have this under control, enough that it certainly will not be the way it is now where people are shutting schools,” he continued.