Anthony Fauci Dismisses Trump’s “99% Harmless” Claim

The Hill reports:

Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, in an interview published Friday pushed back on President Trump’s claim that 99 percent of coronavirus cases are “harmless,” saying that it is “obviously not” the case.

“I’m trying to figure out where the president got that number,” Fauci told The Financial Times. “What I think happened is that someone told him that the general mortality is about 1 percent. And he interpreted, therefore, that 99 percent is not a problem, when that’s obviously not the case.”

Trump earlier this month said that 99 percent of coronavirus cases are “totally harmless,” a claim not backed by evidence. Previous estimates from experts have said about 80 percent of coronavirus cases do not require hospitalization and 20 percent do.