Here are my observations and opinions from my select news of the day.

IT’S QUITE OBVIOUS that President Trump wants to get our economy moving again. While he took the advice of his virus task force to forgo the Easter time frame, it’s clear that his new aspirational date to reopen at least most of the country for business by the end of April weighs heavily on his mind.

At his Sunday briefing, he frequently mentioned seeing “a light at the end of the tunnel,” “we’ve got to get back to work,” and “we’ve got to open our country again.”  I imagine that Doctors Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx inwardly cringe every time he goes there.

They continue to persuade Americans to follow the virus prevention guidelines that have been extended in an effort to stop infections – practicing social distancing and good hygiene – with the hope that statistics will improve, and they can give him their blessing.

“No one is suggesting lifting tight restrictions in areas like New York City,” reported Rob Crilly in Washington Examiner magazine – and I would add Detroit and New Orleans – “but other parts of the country might be able to get back to work sooner than a one-size-fits-all approach might suggest.”

“We have five people per square mile,” declared Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, a medical doctor, this morning, as he, too, wanted to see the shutdown for most businesses eased where feasible.

“We are going to do more harm with the cure than the illness itself if we don’t get the economy up and running,” said Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia’s 10^th District, coming close to quoting the president.

Reminding people that we are at war; Sen. Lindsey Graham suggests that “any president who turns down sound advice during a war usually regrets it.”  So far, he has listened to the medical experts, while close administration members, like Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, want him to ease off on social distancing, which has had a catastrophic effect on the economy.

Social distancing measures can continue to be followed in most businesses. We are hearing recommendations that restaurants could reopen with fewer tables placed in accordance with social distancing recommendations.  In businesses where employees work side by side, their work stations could be spaced-out with fewer people while a second shift is added.

As much as the president wants to get the America great again train back on track, he understands the importance of keeping America’s health and safety in the forefront.

Americans can help by strictly adhering to the virus prevention guidelines, especially over the next three weeks.

POOR JOE BIDEN – I have been watching him struggle to get air time for his campaign.  When he gets it, from the likes of CNN or MSNBC, he stumbles, or says something obvious like suggesting that the president should be consulting scientists. If he watched the president’s daily briefings, he would see them.

While I take note of the polls that show him beating President Trump here and there, all I can do is laugh.  Like I did when a reporter asked the president if he would take a call from Biden on the virus.   Incidentally, the president told the media today that he had a nice conversation of about 15 minutes with Biden; both agreed not to reveal what was discussed.

In an e-mail I received from a friend recently, he wrote of his disappointment in Wall Street Journal editorial columnist Daniel Henninger, who my friend believes thinks the polls in favor of Biden are believable.  I doubt it.

Personally, I don’t think Henninger has changed his position since October 16, 2019, when he wrote, “Joe Biden is finished. Joe Biden isn’t going to make it.”

More proof of that was revealed in Ken Thomas’ Wall Street Journal article, “Biden, Aides Craft Coronavirus Agenda.”  Listening to former Obama cronies, he’s “working on a more extensive economic plan – more than what? – and plans to lay out a broader case of what is going to be required not just over the next few months, but over the next few years,” according to Thomas.  Does he really think he has a chance to become president?

HAVE YOU NOTICED that Priorities USA, one of the Democrat’s super PACs, has begun airing anti-Trump commercials?  It’s happening in a number of states.

They’re placing the blame for what has happened to the economy on the president, using his words offering calm and encouragement in a voiceover while a graphic chart shows infections and deaths climbing.

SINCE I WROTE my April 5, 2020 piece on those who predicted the pandemic, I learned of a National Review article by Jim Geraghty, in which he credited the writer of a story published in a November 2017 edition of Smithsonian magazine entitled, “Is China Ground Zero for a Future Pandemic?”

In it, the author wrote of China being “uniquely positioned to create a novel flu that kills people.  On Chinese farms, people, poultry and other livestock often live in close proximity.  Pigs can be infected by both bird flu and human flu viruses, becoming potent ‘mixing vessels’ that allow genetic material from each to combine and possibly form new and deadly strains.

YOU JUST CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP, but Mika Brzezinski, co-host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” seemingly in an attempt to one-up her husband Joe Scarborough, accused President Trump of having a ”financial tie” to the malaria and arthritis drug hydroxychloroquine because he has repeatedly promotes the drug as a possible treatment for coronavirus.

“A lot of people would say, follow the money.  There’s got to be some sort of financial tie to someone, somewhere that has the president pushing this repeatedly,” Brzezinski said.

“Mika’s allegation is tantamount to an accusation that Trump is on the take,”  wrote Mark Finkelstein, contributing editor of Media Research Center. “

To accuse the president of the United States of outright corruption in the midst of the greatest crisis in the lives of most Americans, is a libel most vile unless she can substantiate it.”

Obviously interested in finding a drug that can be used to fight the virus, he has been briefed on a number of tests that have shown the drug to be effective.  Just as he signed an executive order permitting the use of experimental drugs under “right to try,” he tries to put forth optimism and hope for Americans.

PONDER THIS – “Among U.S. patients hospitalized with COVID-19, 73 percent had at least one underlying condition,” according to Tyler Sonnemaker of Business Insider, covering a report as of March 28, 2020 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The highest pre-existing conditions noted included chronic lung disease, cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, and other chronic diseases, and many with one or more of these diseases.

May God continue to bless the United States of America.