SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Dr. Anthony Fauci (R), director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and U.S. President Donald Trump participate in the daily coronavirus task force briefing at the White House on April 22, 2020 in Washington, D.C. Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control, has said that a potential second wave of coronavirus later this year could flare up again and coincide with flu season. (Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Virus-Denialist-in-Chief: Trump Claims 'You May Not Even Have Corona Coming Back' as Fauci Says 'I Am Convinced' It Will
As U.S. president champions anti-science movement and publicly contradicts his own experts, WHO warns of Covid-19 fight for 'long time' to come.
Apr 23, 2020
President Donald Trump continued his anti-science crusade on Wednesday evening as he publicly contradicted warnings about the duration of the coronavirus crisis made by his own administration's experts, even as the World Health Organization warns that the highly infectious disease will retain its hold "for a long time" and U.S. health officials say they believe a rebound later in the year could be even harder on the nation.
Speaking at the White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing, Trump asserted that the coronavirus "may not come back at all" and claimed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield was "totally misquoted" by the Washington Post in an interview in which he said the coronavirus could "actually be even more difficult" in the fall when the flu season returns.
The president's effort at vindication backfired after he brought Redfield to the podium to clarify the remarks. "I didn't say that this was going to be worse," said Redfield. "I said it was going to be... more difficult and potentially complicated because we'll have flu and coronavirus circulating at the same time."
Despite Trump's interjection, Redfield was further pressed by a reporter at the briefing to clarify his position.
"Yeah," Redfield responded."That's what I was trying to say to you just a minute ago--that the issue that I was talking about, about being more difficult, is that we're going to have two viruses circulating at the same time."
The Post late Wednesday described the exchange between Redfield and Trump as a "remarkable spectacle," one which "provided another illustration of the president's tenuous relationship with his own administration's scientific and public health experts, where the unofficial message from the Oval Office is an unmistakable warning: Those who challenge the president's erratic and often inaccurate coronavirus views will be punished--or made to atone."
Evidence of that discord continued when Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, also countered Trump's claim that the coronavirus would not be around in the fall.
While Trump claimed at the briefing, "you may not even have corona coming back" later in the year, Fauci later said the opposite: "We will have coronavirus in the fall. I am convinced of that because of the degree of... transmissibility that it has, the global nature."
Fauci also pushed back against Trump's shoulder-shrugging in response to Georgia's Republican Gov. Brian Kemp's decision to reopen some businesses as soon as Friday and more broadly against moves--as Trump has advocated--to quickly reopen the economy.
Trump said Kemp "must do what he thinks is right. I want him to do what he thinks is right, but I disagree with him on what he's doing."
But Fauci said it suggested it was unwise "to just turn the switch on and go. Because there is a danger of a rebound. And I know there's the desire to move ahead quickly--that's a natural, human nature desire--but going ahead and leapfrogging into phases where you should not be. I would advise [Kemp], as a health official and as a physician, not to do that."
Trump has also in recent days boasted the message of anti-lockdown protesters with a series of tweets saying "LIBERATE MINNESOTA!" "LIBERATE MICHIGAN!" and LIBERATE VIRGINIA" and a remark at a press briefing calling those protesters "great people."
The latest White House press conference came the same day the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a fresh warning about the likely lengthy duration of the coronavirus crisis.
"Most countries are still in the early stages of their epidemics," WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a briefing in Geneva. "Make no mistake: we have a long way to go. This virus will be with us for a long time."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
President Donald Trump continued his anti-science crusade on Wednesday evening as he publicly contradicted warnings about the duration of the coronavirus crisis made by his own administration's experts, even as the World Health Organization warns that the highly infectious disease will retain its hold "for a long time" and U.S. health officials say they believe a rebound later in the year could be even harder on the nation.
Speaking at the White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing, Trump asserted that the coronavirus "may not come back at all" and claimed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield was "totally misquoted" by the Washington Post in an interview in which he said the coronavirus could "actually be even more difficult" in the fall when the flu season returns.
The president's effort at vindication backfired after he brought Redfield to the podium to clarify the remarks. "I didn't say that this was going to be worse," said Redfield. "I said it was going to be... more difficult and potentially complicated because we'll have flu and coronavirus circulating at the same time."
Despite Trump's interjection, Redfield was further pressed by a reporter at the briefing to clarify his position.
"Yeah," Redfield responded."That's what I was trying to say to you just a minute ago--that the issue that I was talking about, about being more difficult, is that we're going to have two viruses circulating at the same time."
The Post late Wednesday described the exchange between Redfield and Trump as a "remarkable spectacle," one which "provided another illustration of the president's tenuous relationship with his own administration's scientific and public health experts, where the unofficial message from the Oval Office is an unmistakable warning: Those who challenge the president's erratic and often inaccurate coronavirus views will be punished--or made to atone."
Evidence of that discord continued when Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, also countered Trump's claim that the coronavirus would not be around in the fall.
While Trump claimed at the briefing, "you may not even have corona coming back" later in the year, Fauci later said the opposite: "We will have coronavirus in the fall. I am convinced of that because of the degree of... transmissibility that it has, the global nature."
Fauci also pushed back against Trump's shoulder-shrugging in response to Georgia's Republican Gov. Brian Kemp's decision to reopen some businesses as soon as Friday and more broadly against moves--as Trump has advocated--to quickly reopen the economy.
Trump said Kemp "must do what he thinks is right. I want him to do what he thinks is right, but I disagree with him on what he's doing."
But Fauci said it suggested it was unwise "to just turn the switch on and go. Because there is a danger of a rebound. And I know there's the desire to move ahead quickly--that's a natural, human nature desire--but going ahead and leapfrogging into phases where you should not be. I would advise [Kemp], as a health official and as a physician, not to do that."
Trump has also in recent days boasted the message of anti-lockdown protesters with a series of tweets saying "LIBERATE MINNESOTA!" "LIBERATE MICHIGAN!" and LIBERATE VIRGINIA" and a remark at a press briefing calling those protesters "great people."
The latest White House press conference came the same day the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a fresh warning about the likely lengthy duration of the coronavirus crisis.
"Most countries are still in the early stages of their epidemics," WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a briefing in Geneva. "Make no mistake: we have a long way to go. This virus will be with us for a long time."
President Donald Trump continued his anti-science crusade on Wednesday evening as he publicly contradicted warnings about the duration of the coronavirus crisis made by his own administration's experts, even as the World Health Organization warns that the highly infectious disease will retain its hold "for a long time" and U.S. health officials say they believe a rebound later in the year could be even harder on the nation.
Speaking at the White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing, Trump asserted that the coronavirus "may not come back at all" and claimed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield was "totally misquoted" by the Washington Post in an interview in which he said the coronavirus could "actually be even more difficult" in the fall when the flu season returns.
The president's effort at vindication backfired after he brought Redfield to the podium to clarify the remarks. "I didn't say that this was going to be worse," said Redfield. "I said it was going to be... more difficult and potentially complicated because we'll have flu and coronavirus circulating at the same time."
Despite Trump's interjection, Redfield was further pressed by a reporter at the briefing to clarify his position.
"Yeah," Redfield responded."That's what I was trying to say to you just a minute ago--that the issue that I was talking about, about being more difficult, is that we're going to have two viruses circulating at the same time."
The Post late Wednesday described the exchange between Redfield and Trump as a "remarkable spectacle," one which "provided another illustration of the president's tenuous relationship with his own administration's scientific and public health experts, where the unofficial message from the Oval Office is an unmistakable warning: Those who challenge the president's erratic and often inaccurate coronavirus views will be punished--or made to atone."
Evidence of that discord continued when Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, also countered Trump's claim that the coronavirus would not be around in the fall.
While Trump claimed at the briefing, "you may not even have corona coming back" later in the year, Fauci later said the opposite: "We will have coronavirus in the fall. I am convinced of that because of the degree of... transmissibility that it has, the global nature."
Fauci also pushed back against Trump's shoulder-shrugging in response to Georgia's Republican Gov. Brian Kemp's decision to reopen some businesses as soon as Friday and more broadly against moves--as Trump has advocated--to quickly reopen the economy.
Trump said Kemp "must do what he thinks is right. I want him to do what he thinks is right, but I disagree with him on what he's doing."
But Fauci said it suggested it was unwise "to just turn the switch on and go. Because there is a danger of a rebound. And I know there's the desire to move ahead quickly--that's a natural, human nature desire--but going ahead and leapfrogging into phases where you should not be. I would advise [Kemp], as a health official and as a physician, not to do that."
Trump has also in recent days boasted the message of anti-lockdown protesters with a series of tweets saying "LIBERATE MINNESOTA!" "LIBERATE MICHIGAN!" and LIBERATE VIRGINIA" and a remark at a press briefing calling those protesters "great people."
The latest White House press conference came the same day the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a fresh warning about the likely lengthy duration of the coronavirus crisis.
"Most countries are still in the early stages of their epidemics," WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a briefing in Geneva. "Make no mistake: we have a long way to go. This virus will be with us for a long time."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.