Trump Campaign Reportedly Planning 2020 Rallies as White House Warns Against Large Gatherings
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President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign is reportedly planning on holding rallies this year, despite health experts warnings against large gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic, reported ABC News.
“This coronavirus will pass and the president is looking forward to getting back out on the campaign trail and holding rallies,” Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh told ABC News. “We will get back to those rallies. Never fear, the president is certain that we’re going to be back out there speaking directly to the American people.”
Trump brought his rallies to a halt in March due to the coronavirus outbreak, but the campaign has now promised to bring the events back prior to the November presidential election, while public health experts advise against large gatherings until 2021.
Dr. Nasia Safdar, the medical director of Infection Control at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, told ABC that large gatherings would not be safe until a vaccine for the coronavirus was developed, which is estimated to occur in late 2021.
Dr. Aaron Carroll, a professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine, emailed ABC News to say “Clearly large rallies are going to be a major problem, unless we are totally sure community transmission is really, really, low. I can’t see many experts being comfortable with them until we’re at herd immunity. I’m certainly not.”
Trump claimed to have spoken to Dr. Anthony Fauci regarding the reopening of his rallies, according to audio obtained by ABC News, and explained that there would be modified and limited seating.
“You’ll have seats where every three or four seats you have empty, you’ll have some fill in, and then ultimately we’ll have it fill in as the virus is gone,” the president said.
Dr. Fauci, however, has previously said that crowds during a pandemic make him “really nervous,” considering gatherings tend to fuel outbreaks.
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