Trump Reverses Decision to Unwind Coronavirus Task Force
Evan Vucci/AP
We ran the numbers: There are 1257 news articles covering this topic. 52% (656) are left leaning, 33% (415) center, 15% (186) right leaning.
Less than a day after signaling the White House task force on coronavirus would be disbanded, President Trump reversed his decision and said the group will “continue on indefinitely.” While left-leaning articles highlight that shutting down the task force raised concerns, right-leaning articles highlight that the task force will focus more on rebooting the economy.
A left-leaning article by CNN highlights that Trump explained that his retreat on phasing out the panel was due to the fact that he “had no idea how popular the task force is, until, actually, yesterday when I started talking about winding it down.” The reversal came after outcry and concern from outside health experts, who said it was too early to disband the panel.
USA Today published a centrist article reporting that the president left the composition of the task force and its focus murky in a series of tweets Wednesday morning, as Trump said he may remove some members of the group and add others, failing to indicate who he had in mind. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders slammed the decision to unwind the task force as a “true American tragedy” and predicted that “thousands will unnecessarily die” because of Trump’s “contempt for science.”
New York Post published a right-leaning article highlighting that the coronavirus task force will focus more on rebooting the economy, as well as vaccines and therapeutics. The article also notes that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. government had not confirmed that a lab in Wuhan, China, accidentally released the virus.