*Update…
Seem’s Trump was told NOT to have this done in public….
I’m sure the Task Force IS benign phased out anyways…
President Trump never wanted anything to do with the virus issue anyways…
He has continued to leave it to others especially the Governor’s…
The economy will be about HIM…
Something g he ALWAYS wants to deal with…
President Trump said on Tuesday that the White House’s coronavirus task force would be shut down and replaced with “something in a different form” as the country moved into what he called Phase 2 of a response to a pandemic that has killed nearly 70,000 Americans.
“We will have something in a different form,” Mr. Trump told reporters as he toured a Honeywell mask manufacturing plant in Arizona. The president praised the work of the task force, led by Vice President Mike Pence, but he said it was time to focus on safety and reopening the country.
“I think we are looking at Phase 2, and we’re looking at other phases,” Mr. Trump said after he was asked whether it was a good idea to shut down the task force while the virus was still spreading through the country. He said that Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the virus response coordinator for the task force, and other top public officials would still be involved in the efforts to address the pandemic after the task force disbanded.
“They will be, and so will other doctors, and so will other experts in the field,” he said, adding, “We are bringing our country back.”
Administration officials have been telling staff members of the task force that the White House plans to wind down the operation in the weeks to come, despite growing evidence that the crisis is still raging.
The news that the White House was planning to end the task force came as the rate of new infections and deaths was falling in New York but was continuing to rise in much of the rest of the country. A number of projections suggest that deaths will remain at elevated levels for months and are likely to increase as states ease their stay-at-home orders.
The task force’s demise would only intensify questions about whether the administration is adequately organized to address the complex, life-or-death decisions related to the virus and give adequate voice to scientists and public health experts in making policy.
After The New York Times reported that the administration was thinking of winding down the task force, Mr. Pence acknowledged that the White House was “having conversations” about it.
“We’re having conversations about that, and about what the proper time is for the task force to complete its work and for the ongoing efforts to take place on an agency-by-agency level,” Mr. Pence told reporters, adding that the task force could wrap up its work by early June.
While the task force’s advice has sometimes been swept aside by Mr. Trump and its recommendations for criteria on reopening businesses was defied by a number of states, it has served as the closest thing the White House has for running a centralized response to the pandemic.
While the task force met Tuesday at the White House, a meeting on Monday was canceled, and a Saturday session, a staple of recent months, was not held. Mr. Trump has stopped linking his news briefings to the task force’s meetings.
It was not clear exactly what might replace the task force….