The Insider reports:
President Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed the death rate from the novel coronavirus was not 3.4%, contradicting the number that the World Health Organization gave on Tuesday.
The president appeared in an exclusive interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Wednesday, saying he thinks the true death rate is a “fraction of 1%.”
“Well, I think the 3.4% is really a false number,” Trump said. “Now, this is just my hunch but based on a lot of conversation with a lot of people who do this, because a lot of people will have this and it’s very mild. They’ll get better very rapidly. They don’t even see a doctor.”
Newsweek reports:
That 3.4% figure was cited by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Tuesday, who pointed out the mortality rate was much higher than that of the seasonal flu.
“You never hear about those people, so you can’t put them down in the category, the overall population, in terms of this corona flu, or virus, so you just can’t do that,” Trump said.
“So if we have, you know, thousands, or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by sitting around, and even going to work, some of them go to work, but they get better,” he told the Hannity show on Wednesday.
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
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
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
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
Trump told Hannity that “in one way, he hated to” bring back Americans from the Diamond Princess cruise — “statistically, I hated to do it” — since it would increase the number of US coronavirus cases, and he wondered, “Is it gonna look bad?” But he decided it was right.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 5, 2020