It "certainly can be a reality" for some places in the United States to reopen by May 1, but President Donald Trump has been clear that he is looking at data, not a date, and will listen to health and medical experts while making his decisions, presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway said Wednesday.
"Now, the mayor of New York City, I agree completely that he would be incredibly cautious to look at a May 1 date or any time soon," said Conway on Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "New York City has been among the hardest hit. Half of the deaths in the entire country, sadly, have occurred in that state."
Meanwhile, 24% of the nation's counties have had no infections, and about 29 states would meet criteria needed for reopening, said Conway, adding that Trump would be the "best person" to revive the economy.
She also spoke out in defense of Trump's call to suspend payments to the World Health Organization, pointing out that the United States has paid around $830 million over the last two years to the organization, while other places like China, France, Italy, and India have only paid a fraction of that amount.
"It's meant to coordinate responses and keep an eye on things, particularly in the case of infectious diseases, for the entire world," but the WHO either "lied" or was not transparent about the human-to-human transmission of coronavirus, said Conway.
"We have every right to know, and every right to know because of what has happened in the pandemic," she said. "This is COVID-19, not COVID 1, folks. You would think that people charged with the World Health Organization facts and figures would be on top of that."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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