Donald Trump has been slated by experts for a late-night tweet implying that stopping the coronavirus outbreak in the US may take just two weeks’ work.

“WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF,” he tweeted in capital letters. “AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!”

Speaking on CNN, international security expert Juliette Kayyem took the president to task for his optimism, which she said was unfounded and misguided.

“Let me just make it clear: no country has done this in 15 days, not even the most aggressive totalitarian countries. So this 15 days was just, I think, a way of making it easy on us.

“We are not doing aggressive nationwide social distancing,” she said, “so it’s a bit of an experiment. Social distancing buys us time. What does it buy us time for?

“Well, on the far end the vaccine, which no one thinks will be distributed for 18 months. But well before that there’s going to be mitigation measures, treatment, greater capacity to help the doctors and the nurse. There’s going to be other ways that we can protect people; more testing for example.

“So we’re just buying time. This 15 days is bogus. It’s just a number out there, we will see where we are in 15 days, and my concern with this tweet … is that he has been looking for a quick fix – a vaccine, a treatment, and now a date – there’s no quick fix.”

Mr Trump’s 15-day timeframe may not hold up to expert scrutiny, but he nonetheless found followers to retweet in support of it. “15 days,” tweeted Renee Williams. “Then we isolate the high risk groups and the rest of us get back to work before it’s all over for everyone!! #Landslide2020”

He then retweeted another supporter who advanced the same view: “Correct. 15 days, then we keep the high risk groups protected as necessary and the rest of us go back to work.”

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Mr Trump has made the state of the economy one of his top priorities since the coronavirus outbreak started to take off in the US. In his early tweets and statements about the crisis, he repeatedly emphasised that the stock markets were “healthy”, but he changed his tone in early March, acknowledging that the pandemic could trigger a recession.

In her appearance on CNN, Ms Kayyem said that while the economic impact of the crisis is clearly a concern, the scale of the public health challenge must not be underestimated.

“We do have to balance the economy and other needs,” said Ms Kayyem, “we know that. But for people who want to get out at day 15, what they won’t answer is what’ll you do when our healthcare system collapses?