Reality Television: The country’s top epidemiologist said it’s possible that the US could suffer 100,000 to 200,000 deaths before the coronavirus pandemic is over.

  This morning, 2,513 people have died of the coronavirus in the United States, up by 802 over the weekend. New York City accounts for 776 of those deaths, 98 of them in a seven hour period. The number of infections in the US is over 143,000.

  Current estimates are that the peak may hit in about two weeks.

  Dr. Anthony Fauci said yesterday on CNN  that the possibility of 1 million to 2 million Americans dying of the coronavirus is “almost certainly off the chart,” adding, “Now it’s not impossible, but very, very unlikely.”

  Fauci said you have to be careful with predictions because “it’s such a moving target that you could so easily be wrong and mislead people.”

  Evidently heeding the word of the scientists, Trump abandoned his hope of re-opening the economy by Easter and said Americans should continue with their “social distancing” until at least April 30^th. 

  As the numbers continue their daily upward trajectory, lawmakers are already talking about another emergency response bill, the CDC says people in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut should “refrain from nonessential domestic travel for 14 days,” and President Trump is bragging about the ratings for his coronavirus briefings.

  Trump tweeted that, “Because the ‘Ratings’ of my News Conferences etc. are so high, ‘Bachelor finale, Monday Night Football type numbers’ according to the @nytimes, the Lamestream Media is going CRAZY.” 

  A crowd would also gather if they knew a train wreck is going to happen at the same time and place every day.

Supply and Demand: Medical workers all over the country still report a dire need for basic supplies to safely treat the ill. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio says his hospitals will run out by next Sunday.

  The federal government says that over the weekend they delivered to New York

80 tons of personal protective equipment including 130,000 N95 respirators. At the same time yesterday, President Trump was suggesting that some hospitals may be hoarding supplies, or worse; “Where are the masks going? Are they going out the back door?” 

 Trump said, “I think people should check that, because there’s something going on. I don’t think it’s hoarding, I think it’s maybe worse than hoarding. But check it out.”

  It was classic Trump, repeating something he claims he “heard” without any proof to back it up. Maybe there just aren’t enough masks and gowns and the federal government is failing.

  Part of the problem may be that the US sent medical supplies to China back in early February at a time when Trump was publicly dismissing the seriousness of the outbreak. A State Department announcement said, “This week the State Department has facilitated the transportation of nearly 17.8 tons of donated medical supplies to the Chinese people, including masks, gowns, gauze, respirators, and other vital materials.” 

Dr. Trump in the White House: These days it’s impossible to avoid the pandemic or the President. Like we said, it’s impossible to ignore a train wreck.

  While the country could use a good dose of comfort and inspiration, here is what Trump said yesterday: “You’re going to have massive depression, meaning mental depression, you’re going to have depression in the economy also, but you’re going to have mental depression for people, you’re going to have large numbers of suicides, take a look at what happens in a really horrible recession or worse, so you’re going to have tremendous suicides, but you know what you’re going to have more than anything else? Drug addiction.”

  He said, “You will see drugs being used like nobody’s ever used them before, and people are going to be dying all over the place from drug addiction, because you would have people that had a wonderful job at a restaurant, or even owned a restaurant.” 

  Always good to hear from the President.

The Shadow President: The other television hit of the pandemic season is the daily briefing by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is both sympathetic and blunt. People are talking about drafting him to run for President.

  Cuomo is known as a hard-nosed guy, dislikable at times, so his pandemic popularity is fascinating. Maureen Dowd writes for The NY Times that, “To the surprise of many who did not associate the name ‘Andrew Cuomo’ with the word ‘empathy,’ the governor has become a sort of national shrink, talking us through our fear, our loss and our growing stir-craziness.”

  In one of his briefings, Cuomo quoted his late father Mario, who was also governor of New York, about what government should be: “The idea of family, mutuality, the sharing of benefits and burdens for the good of all, feeling one another’s pain, sharing one another’s blessings — reasonably, honestly, fairly, without respect to race or sex or geography or political affiliation.”

  Dowd writes, “Cuomo thinks what defines America is its humanity and its welcome mat for the globe. Trump’s view seems to be the economy über alles, even if we have to leave some stragglers on the field.”

-30-