Former TV game host Chuck Woolery, who claimed on Twitter this week that other people were “lying” about the new coronavirus, disabled his account on the social media platform after declaring his son had COVID-19.
Woolery, 79, first caught his eye Sunday when President Donald Trump retwed his tweet about the “outrageous lies” surrounding the coronavirus.
In a tweet that lives on virtual file websites, former Wheel of Fortune host wrote: “The most outrageous lies are covid 19. Everybody’s lying. The CDC, the media, the Democrats, our doctors, not all yet maximum, who we’re told to trust. I think it’s about elections and preventing the economy from coming back, which are elections. I’m in poor health.”
A few days after the claim, Woolery revealed that his son had been diagnosed with a coronavirus, and tweeted Wednesday: “To explain more and load in retrospect, Covid-19 is genuine and he is here.”
“My son tested positive for the virus, and I’m sorry for those who are suffering and especially for those who have lost those who enjoyed it,” he said in a tweet, which was kept on a file site.
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A Woolery spokesman told People on Friday that the musician had “temporarily suspended” his account because he was “just looking for a break.”
The representative added that Woolery’s son is “fine” and “has no symptoms.”
Woolery briefly referred to his son’s diagnosis on Thursday’s episode of his podcast Blunt Force Truth, saying he “never said Covid was a hoax” in his questionable tweet.
“There’s no place I’ve used “or” deception is not real “or anything like that. I just said they lied to us,” Woolery said. “My son has it, so I hope he’s okay.”
It is not known when the episode was recorded.
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CBS News correspondent Catherine Herridge approached 74-year-old Trump about Woolery’s retweet in an interview Tuesday and asked, “You republished a tweet that the CDC and fitness officials are lying. You sense it’s confusing to the public. So who does it? Believe?? “
“I didn’t comment,” Trump replied. “I’ve reposted a tweet that a lot of people feel, but I’m just making a comment. I’m just making someone’s voice heard. There’s a lot of voices. There are a lot of other people who think we shouldn’t “I don’t do that kind of control because everything we do is a trap.”
Woolery said on his podcast that “it is an honor for his president to retwor what he thinks and thinks he is vital enough to do so.”
A Woolery spokesman did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
As of Friday, there were more than 3626,000 cases of COVID-19 in the United States, with at least 138,700 deaths from coronavirus-related diseases, in a New York Times database.
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