Donald Trump has argued that Covid-19, or “the plague,” could go away in a few days, sometimes a month, and now “sometime.”
The President of the United States, on more than 20 occasions since February, said the coronavirus would soon disappear and that the United States could “claim victory.”
Instead, the US has seen the worst death toll in the world with some 130,000 American lives lost and 2.74 million infected.
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Still, Trump, whose presidential reelection bid hinges on an economic revival that could see even more Covid-19 deaths, said Fox Business on Wednesday the country was “doing very well with the coronavirus.”
He added: “I think at some point that will go away, I hope.”
February: “One day, it is like a miracle, it will disappear”
As the pandemic began to spread in places like New York, Seattle and San Diego, where a death in early February could have been related to Covid-19, President Trump continued to praise China, who said he “was receiving it increasingly under control. ”
On Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump wrote on Twitter on February 7 that “he is strong, strong, and strongly focused on leading the counterattack against the Coronavirus.”
“It will be successful, especially when the weather begins to heat up and the virus, hopefully, weakens and then disappears.”
China was praised again on February 25, when Trump said “[China is] putting it more and more under control. So I think that’s a problem that is going to go away. “
While the virus continued to spread in Wuhan, China, where the pandemic began, President Trump’s other theory, based on the warm climate that destroys the coronavirus, has also proven to be untrue.
When he met with state governors on February 10, President Trump had told them, “Many people think it disappears in April in the heat, as the heat enters. Usually, that will disappear in April.”
Instead, the last week of April there have been an estimated 14,000 American deaths with Covid-19 since the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began tracking cases.
In contrast to this month’s comments, which said the virus would disappear “at some point,” President Trump said on February 26 that the virus could disappear “in a couple of days.”
That has also proven not to be true.
“We have done an incredible job. We will continue. It’s going to go away, ”Trump said again on February 27. “One day, it is like a miracle, it will disappear.”
March: “He is going to leave, hopefully at the end of the month”
As US coronavirus cases approached 300 on March 6, with 14 deaths reported, President Trump said again that the virus “will go away.”
That same statement was heard over and over again throughout the month, ending with some 188,172 cases and 3,873 deaths in the U.S.
“We are prepared and we are doing a great job with that. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go, ”Trump said on March 10.
He added two days later: “he is going to leave. We want it to go away with very, very few deaths. “
“It will go. You know it, you know it will disappear and will disappear, ”said the president on March 30. “And we are going to have a great victory. … I want our country to be calm and strong, and fight and win, and it will go away. “
Then, on March 31, after the United States states took refuge there, Trump stated that “he is going to leave, hopefully by the end of the month.” And if not, I hope it will be soon after that. ”
April: “It could take longer [to go away]”
As the cases approached 300,000 on April 3, with more than 7,000 deaths, President Trump again said, “He is going to go. He is going … I said he is going, and he is going.”
Four days later, when the cases accelerated towards the 400.00 mark, with almost 13,000 deaths, he complained that “it will disappear”, but that “the cases really did not accumulate in a while.”
“You have to understand, I am a cheerleader for this country. I don’t want to create havoc and commotion and everything else, “said Trump, who argued two days later that:” I think what happens is that it will go away. This is going to go away. “
Then on April 29, as Covid-19 continued to spread, he seemed to admit that “it’s going to go. It’s going to go It’s going to be eradicated and, uh, it could take longer. It may be in smaller sections. No it will be what we had “
May: “It will go away sometime”
After US coronavirus cases surpassed the million mark in April, rather than “disappear,” the US president began comparing Covid-19 with other viruses that he said “never would reappear. ”
“They have never appeared again. They also die. Like everything else, they die, ”he said on May 8. “He’s going to go. And we’re not going to see him again, hopefully, after a period of time. “
He added: “You may have some outbreaks and you know I suppose I would expect that.”
About a week later, he commented that “it will disappear at some point, it will disappear. It can explode and it cannot explode. We will have to see what happens, but if it explodes, we will put out the fire.”
June: “We did very well before the plague”
In the month that US states began to lift blockade measures and facilitate social distancing, Trump stated on June 16 that: “I always say, even without him [a vaccine], it goes “.
He added: “But if we had the vaccine, and we will, if we had a therapy or a cure, one thing mixes with the other, it will be a fantastic day, and I think that will happen and will happen very soon.”
Then, in an appearance on Fox News on June 17, he said he didn’t want to talk about “really good therapies” because the coronavirus was going to “go away.”
Less than a week later, he complained to an audience in Phoenix, Arizona, that “we did very well before the plague and we are doing very well after the plague. It will disappear.
On Tuesday, and in contrast to those comments in June, the US reported more than 48,000 new cases of coronavirus in one day, the highest 24-hour count since the pandemic began.
Eight states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Georgia, Idaho, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas) reported all-time highs for new daily cases.
Disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci warned the same day that Covid-19 would not fade soon.
Instead, the US could soon witness 100,000 new cases per day.
“I can’t make an accurate prediction, but it’s going to be very disturbing,” said Dr. Fauci.
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