During an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Wednesday evening, President Donald Trump made a number of inaccurate and bewildering claims about coronavirus and its spread, in the United States and elsewhere.
On Thursday morning, facing headlines criticizing him for those inaccuracies, Trump blasted the media, calling them “fake news” for suggesting he had said it was okay for workers infected with coronavirus (COVID-19) to go to work.
“I NEVER said people that are feeling sick should go to work. This is just more Fake News and disinformation put out by the Democrats” and media organizations like MSNBC, Trump said in a tweet.
I NEVER said people that are feeling sick should go to work. This is just more Fake News and disinformation put out by the Democrats, in particular MSDNC. Comcast covers the CoronaVirus situation horribly, only looking to do harm to the incredible & successful effort being made!
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— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2020
“Comcast covers the CoronaVirus situation horribly, only looking to do harm to the incredible & successful effort being made!” he added.
One could make the argument, however, that he himself is spreading disinformation and possibly causing harm.
Looking at his comments on Fox News closely, Trump indeed never directly said that people with coronavirus should go to work — but he seemed to heavily imply that it was an option for them.
Trump, questioned by Hannity, was defending against reports that the World Health Organization had said the rate of death among reported cases of coronavirus was 3.4 percent. The president disputed those numbers, based on nothing more than what he admittedly called a “hunch.”
Trump to Hannity on WHO saying coronavirus death rate is 3.4%: "I think the 3.4% number is really a false number. Now this is just my hunch, but based on a lot of conversations … personally, I'd say the number is way under 1%."
Astoundingly irresponsible. pic.twitter.com/uC9c03zX31
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 5, 2020
“I think the 3.4 percent is really a false number. Now, this is just a hunch, but based on a lot of conversations with a lot of people that do this,” Trump said, suggesting that the death rate was “way under 1 percent” because of people who don’t report having the disease.
“We have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people who get better just by sitting around, even going to work, some of them go to work, but they get better,” Trump added.
In the immediate moments after those comments, Trump did not discourage those with COVID-19 from going to their places of business.
Trump is correct in the literal sense — he didn’t tell people to go to work if they showed signs of having coronavirus. But he also didn’t discourage them doing so, when he brought up the idea himself, leading many to believe that he was advocating people get better on their own without seeking medical attention.
Trump’s disputing of WHO’s numbers is itself disingenuous because he’s trying to suggest the organization said the death rate was 3.4 percent among all cases, reported or not.
The World Health Organization says the novel coronavirus is deadlier than seasonal flu strains. No one has built up immunity to the new virus, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. https://t.co/10OJVsZTvb
— CNN (@CNN) March 4, 2020
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom specifically stated, however, that the death rate of 3.4 percent was among reported cases of coronavirus worldwide.
Chris Walker is a freelance journalist based in Madison, Wisconsin, who focuses on news, politics, and analysis of world events. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, since 2005 Chris has reported on workers’ rights protests in Wisconsin, opined on four separate presidential elections and written on a number of other political subjects for a variety of national online publications.
