Trump says virus in US will get worse before it gets better

Summary: President Trump, who previously believed the virus would go away on its own, shifts course after those predictions fail to materialize. He previously had been adamant that suggestions of masking and social distancing were political tools. The theory was that they were designed by the medical profession to make COVID appear transmissible. Now 6 months since the virus appeared in the United States, Trump now suggests they could be helpful in limiting the spread. He believes progress on vaccines and treatments will allow recovery to begin.

“The vaccines are coming, and they’re coming a lot sooner than anybody thought possible,” Trump promised anew.

Recent developments: New Trump vaccine policy limits access to COVID shots

Trump Health Secretary appointee Robert F Kennedy Jr has long been skeptical of vaccine safety. A consortium of scientific experts typically make recommendations for the CDC, but Kennedy broke that procedure to personally restrict vaccines for children and people who are pregnant. He has been a prominent anti-vaccine activist, and has done his best to rid the FDA of dissenting opinions.

Conclusions: While Trump has gone back and forth on his health recommendations, his underlying views are less fluid than they may appear. Ultimately, the image Trump is trying to project of a strong, fearless leader who always has the right answer is conflicting with reality. When he thought COVID was small enough to ignore, that's what he wanted to do. There was no actual issue with masks other than they were a visible reminder that there was a health crisis. Once COVID grew too big to ignore, he pivoted to pushing masks and even vaccines that were still in development to try and wrap it up as quickly as possible. Of course this means he had to swing back to ignoring the virus once he deemed the problem solved. This explains his swing backwards on vaccines.