Trump: "There's A Very Good Chance You're Not Going To Die" From The Coronavirus

Shannon Pettypiece, NBC News:

This week, federal health officials warned Americans to prepare for the coronavirus to become a pandemic, stocks tumbled on fears of just how widespread the virus could get, and the White House sought $2.5 billion from Congress to fight the deadly infection.

But in the telling of President Donald Trump, everything is fine.

Trump blamed the media and the Democrats (naturally) for "doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus look as bad as possible" – misspelling the name of the virus – to hamper his re-election big. But he assured everyone: "USA in great shape!"

During a press conference, Trump assured the nation:

There's a very good chance you're not going to die.

Larry Kudlow, Trump's top economic adviser, told CNBC: "We have contained this. I won't say airtight, but pretty close to airtight."

Last Tuesday, Trump told reporters the virus was simply "a problem that's going to go away". Back on February 10, Trump stated the virus would be a memory by around Easter, because warmer weather will cause it to "miraculously" go away. (Today, Trump repeated that a "miracle" could occur stop the threat.)

The virus that we're talking about having to do, a lot of people think that goes away in April, with the heat, as the heat comes in, typically that will go away in April.

As Vanity Fair reported: "Unsurprisingly, he offered no scientific or medical explanation to support his theory."

At his press conference, after Trump said "we're very close to a vaccine", someone with actual knowledge of the matter stated a vaccine would not be available for at least a year.

Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases:

It's not so much of a question of if this will happen in this country anymore, but a question of when this will happen ... [The public should] prepare for the expectation that this might be bad.

Trump was very annoyed that bad news about the virus caused the "markets" to lose money. That's his first priority and he's taking steps to make sure that doesn't happen again. He's tightening control over what information will be (or will not be) given to the public by having all official statements and public appearances go through Vice President Mike Pence first. It will be easier for Trump to muzzle scientists and other experts who want to present factual information, aka information that makes Trump look bad.

Rachel Maddow, MSNBC:

The president is telling the public things that are not true about the coronavirus, and specifically about how it is being handled in the United States, and this is a problem. The president again tonight says it's only 15 cases of coronavirus in the United States. It is not 15 cases. It is at least 60 cases of coronavirus in the United States, not 15. The president continues to insist that the number of cases is going to drop. It's going to go away, it's going to become near zero when even his own administration's health officials are saying we need to prepare for the fact that the number of cases in the United States is going to go up. The president is saying the number of cases is going to go to zero, it's going to drop away. It's not. It's going to go up. The president is not telling you the truth about that. The president has said that in the last two days that the coronavirus is less lethal, has a lower fatality rate than the common flu. That is quite dramatically, mathematically incorrect.

Donald Trump does not have the coronavirus, so he doesn't give a shit about it.

Pence might be the absolute worst person to put in charge of anything having to do with science. He proved that back in 2014-15 when he was governor of Indiana. During an HIV outbreak – when Scott County, a rural area which rarely saw even one HIV case a year, had 215 people test positive – Pence's solution was to "pray on it".

Now, with the coronavirus, it's everyone else who will be praying. Trump stated he also gave Pence the responsibility because the Vice President didn't "have anything to do".