Scholar influencing Trump's pandemic response predicted only 500 Americans would die from COVID-19

A scholar at the right-wing Hoover Institution who does not have any kind of medical degree has been an influential voice within the Trump administration's response to the pandemic.

According to New York Times reporter Jim Tankersley, Hoover senior fellow Richard Epstein has been a "driver" of the administration's push to "restart" the economy even though the COVID-19 pandemic is still growing exponentially in the United States.

Tankersley says that an Epstein essay published last week has "circulated in the Trump administration" -- even though it incorrectly predicted that only around 500 Americans would ultimately die from the coronavirus.

"In the United States, if the total death toll increases at about the same rate, the current 67 deaths should translate into about 500 deaths at the end," Epstein wrote.

In fact, the number of coronavirus deaths in the U.S. passed 500 on Monday even as the number of documented cases keeps growing by the thousands each day.

In a followup essay, Epstein acknowledged that he bungled his initial projection of coronavirus fatalities in the United States, but still insisted the maximum number of deaths would be 2,500, which Tankersley notes is "still well below what public health experts project."

And despite being so dramatically wrong about the toll of the disease, Epstein is standing by his conclusion that fears of the pandemic are widely overblown and no drastic action is needed.