White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows
Mark Randall Meadows The Atlanta airport checkpoint was closed after workers tested positive for coronavirus. Republicans in the House of Representatives urge the White House to support the TSA that performs temperature checks on travelers. He said Monday that the “vast majority” of Americans are safe from the new coronavirus and defended President Trump
Donald John Trump Trump’s second term plans remain a mystery to the Republican Party Trump to hold an outdoor rally in New Hampshire on Saturday Eighty-eight years of debt mercy MOREThe observation that 99 percent of coronavirus cases are “totally harmless.”
Meadows, who appears on “Fox & Friends,” said Trump’s comments were backed by statistics, though he did not cite specific numbers.
“I don’t even know it’s a generalization,” Meadows said when asked about the president’s comment over the weekend. “When you start looking at all the [statistics] and all the numbers we have, the amount of evidence we have, the vast majority of people are safe from this. “
According to Johns Hopkins University, almost 2.9 million Americans have been infected with the coronavirus and nearly 130,000 have died from the virus.
That would lead to a death rate well above 1 percent, not to mention cases that result in seriously ill people.
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Robert Redfield, said last month, however, that coronavirus infections could be 10 times higher than the number actually reported. As a result, some believe that the death rate in the United States is much lower.
The senior White House official said those who are elderly or who have comorbidities should be “very careful,” but said the risk was otherwise low.
“If you are over 80 or have three what you call comorbidities – diabetes, hypertension, heart problems – then you have to be very, very careful, ”continued Meadows. “Outside of that, the risks are extremely low, and the president is right about that, and the facts and statistics support us.”
Trump, who has downplayed recent spikes in coronavirus cases, has been scrutinized for saying during his July 4 speech that 99 percent of COVID-19 cases are “totally harmless.”
“Similarly, evidence: There was no evidence for a new virus, but now we have examined more than 40 million people,” Trump said during his remarks at the White House “Salute to America” event. “But in doing so, we show cases, 99 percent of which are completely harmless. Results that no other country will show, because no other country has evidence that we have, not in terms of numbers or quality. “
Trump’s comment overlooked the significant number of people who have been hospitalized with the virus or who otherwise experienced adverse health effects. An estimated one-third of coronavirus patients are asymptomatic, according to the CDC.
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn declined to comment on the accuracy of the president’s claim when he was pressured Sunday, but urged Americans to follow federal guidelines to avoid contracting or spreading the virus.
“We absolutely must take this seriously. We must institute these public health measures. We can’t get away from that, ”Hahn said on CNN. “It is extremely important that Americans follow those guidelines and protect the most vulnerable.”
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany also defended the president’s comments during a separate appearance on Fox News on Monday morning. She said he was making an “objective observation” that the majority of Americans who contract the coronavirus will recover from it.
“The President was making an objective point that most people will recover from the coronavirus that they contract. That this very small fraction of people are fatally victims of coronaviruses, “said McEnany, noting that the death rate in the United States is lower than in other countries.
Trump’s remarks on Saturday came as cases have increased in several states, prompting states such as Texas, Florida and California to reverse their reopening efforts.
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