Rift between Trump and Coronavirus Experts Complicate Coronavirus Response

But the surge in infections, hospitalizations and deaths tells a different story.

And it suggests that the president is increasingly out of step with the federal government’s own medical and public health experts.

The US death toll, which now stands at 155,000, is expected to accelerate.

The latest composite forecast from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projects an average of nearly 1,000 deaths per day through Aug. 22.

Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus task force coordinator, warned this week that the virus has become “extraordinarily widespread."

Trump didn't like that. He dismissed her comment as “pathetic” and charged she was capitulating to criticism from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who had earlier criticized Birx.

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Adm. Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary of Health and Human Services who has avoided contradicting the president throughout the crisis, said on Sunday it was time to “move on” from the debate over hydroxychloroquine, a drug Trump continues to promote as a Covid-19 treatment even though there is no clear evidence it is effective.

Dr. Robert Redfield, head of the CDC, last week acknowledged during an ABC News interview that the initial federal government response to the virus too slow.

“It’s not a separation from the president, it’s a cavernous gap,” said Lawrence Gostin, a public health expert at Georgetown University.