“How many lives is the world economy worth?” – Trump announces opening of USA despite doctors' advice

How many lives is the world economy worth? That's not a trite oversimplification. It is an open question being raised by President Donald Trump, CNN writes.

There's a coronavirus pandemic raging out of control that directly threatens mass death among a percentage of the population -- as well as the prospect of an overwhelmed health care system, putting even those who never get Covid-19 but who need other care at risk.

A self-inflicted economic shutdown could launch a calamity more severe than the Great Depression. Government stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders aim to slow the spread of coronavirus and buy time to develop a vaccine, but they have already triggered widespread layoffs and threaten the prospect of mass unemployment, CNN writes.

At the bottom of Trump's tweet is a terrible calculus: How many lives is the economy worth? One thing we know, thanks to the groundbreaking work of husband-and-wife economists Angus Deaton and Anne Case: economic hopelessness kills people, too, CNN adds.

Trump made clear Monday that his preference is to open the country back up regardless of what doctors tell him. He said the shutdown will cause problems like suicides, and complained that the economy had been blazing before the virus hit.

– We have to open our country because that causes problems that could be far bigger – he said, CNN reports.

Doctors, he said, would shut down the whole world.

– We can't let that happen to our country, we have the greatest country in the world, I'm not going to let that happen – he said.

As CNN writes, the country will soon have to decide between economy and epidemiology.

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Covid 19

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