President Trump reported in late January that COVID-19 would be the worst pandemic in a century, but admitted to publicly betting on the threat.
“I tried to downplay it,” Trump told Bob Woodward on March 19 for his upcoming Rage e-book, according to multiple reports.
Three days earlier, Trump had told reporters that “it always had to be very serious. “
The new e-book that national security officials briefed President Trump on the severity of the pandemic on January 28.
“This will be the most difficult situation,” national security adviser Robert O’Brien told Trump. Another official, Matthew Pottinger, made a comparison with the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918.
Privately, Woodward reported, Trump expressed his fear of COVID.
“Just breathe the air and that’s how it happened,” Trump reportedly told Woodward on February 7. “That’s why it’s a very delicate question. It’s a very delicate subject. It’s also more fatal than even its intense flu. “
In public, Trump spent the next several weeks minimizing the risk of the virus spreading across the United States. During a coronavirus task force briefing on February 26, Trump, the new virus would be less fatal than the flu.
“The flu in our country kills between 25,000 and 69,000 people a year. It surprised me,” Trump said. And, so far, if you look at what we have with the other 15 people and their recovery, one is: one is sick, but I hope she recovers, but the others are in wonderful shape.
At the time, there were approximately 50 demonstrations of COVID-19 in the United States.
Trump added: “And again, when you have 15 people, and the 15 in a few days will be almost zero, it’s a very clever task to do. “
More than 188,000 more people have died from COVID-19 in the United States.