唐纳德·特朗普总统的几位高级官员表示，政府可能希望在5月初重启经济。
由于COVID-19大流行继续对经济造成严重损害，政府成员越来越多地呼吁商业迅速恢复，有时与公共卫生专家的建议背道而驰。
美国财政部长史蒂文·姆努钦周四告诉CNBC的吉姆·克莱默，他相信只要特朗普“对医疗问题感到放心”，美国经济可能在5月份再次开放
司法部长威廉·巴尔在周三晚上的福克斯新闻发布会上称目前旨在减缓病毒传播的指导方针是“严厉的”，并期待着社交距离的建议将于4月30日到期。
巴尔说:“我认为，当4月底这段时间到期时，我认为我们必须允许人们比我们有更多的适应能力。”。“不仅告诉人们回家躲在床底下，还允许他们使用其他方式，社交距离和其他方式来保护自己。”
尽管预计的死亡总数已经下降，但医学专家对美国能够在5月份恢复正常经营的想法并不乐观。
特朗普的首席经济顾问拉里·库德洛(Larry Kudlow)也表达了乐观的观点，他在本周早些时候告诉Politico，他希望经济将“在4到8周内”重新开放
根据美国劳工统计局的数据，3月14日至4月4日期间，超过10%的美国劳动力(约1670万人)申请失业。
大萧条期间，美国的失业率创下历史最高纪录，为24.9%，1982年12月为大萧条后的最高水平，为10.8%。专家认为，这场流行病将很快使失业率轻松超过1982年的水平。
COVID-19病例在美国继续增加，医学专家认为感染可能在本月达到高峰，尽管很少有人认为病毒会在5月得到控制。甚至更少有人建议在威胁过去之前撤销社交距离准则。
尽管模型最近预测美国死于该病毒的人数可能会大大低于政府在3月31日预测的10万至2000人，但这些预测是基于持续到5月的社会距离。
特朗普最近表示，他认为这场危机“已经尘埃落定”，但在此前对复活节的希望被证明不切实际后，他没有对经济何时会恢复运行做出任何明确预测。他坚持认为，未来的任何决策都将“严重依赖”公共卫生专家的建议。
白宫副新闻秘书贾德·迪尔(Judd Deere)在一份声明中表示:“总统希望看到经济再次开放，让人们能够重返工作岗位，但科学数据将推动这些决策的时间表，因为他的首要任务是保护美国人民的安全和福祉。”新闻周刊。
特朗普在冠状病毒特别工作组中的首席医学专家安东尼·福西(Anthony Fauci)博士认为，遵守社会距离准则有助于降低预计死亡人数，但在周四的新闻发布会上，他似乎对美国很快会轻松或统一地恢复业务没有信心。
“通常，人们说重新开放政府，就像它是整个国家的开关灯，”福西说。“我们有一个非常大的国家，在这个国家的不同地区，疾病和疾病爆发的模式完全不同。因此，它不会是一个放之四海而皆准的标准。”
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS INDICATE U.S. ECONOMY COULD START REOPENING IN EARLY MAY
Several of President Donald Trump's top officials have indicated that the administration could be hoping to restart the economy by early May.
As the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to inflict severe damage to the economy, members of the administration have increasingly called for business to quickly resume, sometimes in opposition to the recommendations of public health experts.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC's Jim Cramer on Thursday that he believes the economy could be open again by May as long as Trump "feels comfortable with the medical issues."
Attorney General William Barr called current guidelines intended to slow the spread of the virus "draconian" during a Fox News appearance Wednesday night, looking forward to the current date that social distancing recommendations are set to expire, April 30.
"I think when this period of time at the end of April expires, I think we have to allow people to adapt more than we have," said Barr. "Not just tell people to go home and hide under the bed but allow them to use other ways, social distancing and other means, to protect themselves."
Although projected death totals have fallen, medical experts have been less than optimistic about the idea that the United States will be able to resume business as usual by May.
Trump's chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow has also expressed an optimistic view, telling Politico earlier in the week that he is hopeful that the economy will be reopened "in four to eight weeks."
More than 10 percent of the U.S. labor force, about 16.7 million people, filed for unemployment between March 14 and April 4, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The all-time U.S. record rate of unemployment was 24.9 percent during the Great Depression, with a post-Depression high of 10.8 percent in December 1982. Experts believe that the pandemic will soon see unemployment easily eclipse 1982 levels.
COVID-19 cases have continued to swell in the U.S. and medical experts believe that infections could peak this month, although few believe that the virus will be contained by May. Even fewer have recommended rolling back social distancing guidelines before the threat has passed.
Although models have recently predicted that U.S. deaths from the virus that could be significantly lower than the 100,000-2000 the administration predicted on March 31, the projections are based on social distancing continuing through May.
Trump recently said he sees "light at the end of tunnel" for the crisis but has not made any firm predictions about when economy would be back in action, after his previous hope of Easter proved unrealistic. He has insisted that any future decisions will "rely heavily" on the advice of public health experts.
"The President wants to see this economy open again so people can get back to work, but scientific data will drive the timeline on those decisions because his number one priority is to protect the safety and well-being of the American people," said White House Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere in a statement to Newsweek.
Trump's top medical expert on the coronavirus task force, Dr. Anthony Fauci, credited adherence to social distancing guidelines for the decline in predicted death toll but did not seem confident that the country would soon resume business easily or uniformly at Thursday's press briefing.
"Often, people say reopen the government, like it's a light switch on-and-off for the entire country," Fauci said. "We have a very large country with really different patterns of disease and outbreaks in different parts of the country. So, it's not going to be a one size fits all."
