During a Wednesday night phone interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity, President Donald Trump revealed just how seemingly completely clueless that he really is about the Coronavirus — even as the death toll climbs. At present, eleven people have died in the U.S. from the disease, but Trump was dismissive of the situation during his conversation with Hannity. His bonkers, baseless claims even included a suggestion that the World Health Organization’s officially reported fatality rate for the virus is — wait for it — fake news. He called the World Health Organization’s reported fatality rate “false” and said he had a hunch that it was lower, all of which he immediately faced steep mockery for.
Trump on the coronavirus: "It wasn't something that was going to affect us. You know, you don't think of it in terms — when you first heard it in China, you don't think our country's gonna be affected."
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 5, 2020
There’s no apparent evidence whatsoever that the fatality rate is actually around 1 percent as opposed to the 3.4 percent that the World Health Organization has reported. But Trump’s nonsense didn’t end there. He also suggested that those affected with the disease could freely go to work! But that would be dangerous. The Coronavirus is highly transmissible and could be very dangerous for certain vulnerable populations, even if more healthy people make it through the disease just fine.
In this clip, Trump:
1. Denies WHO's coronavirus death rate based on “hunch"
2. Calls coronavirus "corona flu"
3. Suggests it's fine for people w/ Covid-19 to go to work
4. Compares coronavirus to "the regular flu," indicating he doesn't get the difference pic.twitter.com/uC9c03zX31— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 5, 2020
Trump commented to Hannity:
‘People will have this, and it’s very mild. They get better very rapidly; they don’t even see a doctor — they don’t even call a doctor! You never hear about those people. So you can’t put them down in the category of the overall population in terms of this Corona flu, or virus. We have thousands and hundreds of thousands of people who get better by sitting around and even going to work. Some of em go to work — but they get better!’
No! People who have the virus can’t just freely go to work. Trump wants observers to take his administration’s virus response seriously, but then he goes on television and rambles on with this nonsense.
Here is the President of the United States telling the country it's okay to go to work with Coronavirus.
Trump is trying to kill us. pic.twitter.com/2GafbJTOxn
— Big Boss (@escapedmatrix) March 5, 2020
Journalist Brian Klaas commented:
‘It’s difficult to wrap your head around the fact that the president called into a TV show & made a series of statements during a pandemic directly contradicting public health advice. The mind boggles at how reckless & dangerous that is. People who follow his bad advice could die.’
Yet — here we are.
It’s difficult to wrap your head around the fact that the president called into a TV show & made a series of statements during a pandemic directly contradicting public health advice. The mind boggles at how reckless & dangerous that is. People who follow his bad advice could die.
— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) March 5, 2020
Check out more Twitter reactions:
Donald Trump on the Fox @seanhannity show said he had a HUNCH that the death rate from coronavirus is not really 3+% & symptoms may be so mild that U might even go to work.
WTF, U malignantly narcissistic anti-science f*cking moron, ymisinformation puts lives in jeopardy!!!
— Ken Derow:TAKE5:Radically Disrupts Snack Cravings (@KenDerow) March 5, 2020
@CDCgov @CDCDirector Does anyone at CDC have the courage to tell Mr Trump that his misinformation about Coronavirus that he is putting out is dangerous and will harm those who listen to him? CDC has a responsibility to America. Live up to your responsibility
— Michael F Ozaki MD (@brontyman) March 5, 2020
