Ahead of Trump Rally, Republicans Spin COVID-19 Metrics

In the days leading up to President Donald Trump’s first campaign rally since the World Health Organization declared a pandemic, Trump and his supporters are making false and misleading claims about COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and testing: 

• In a tweet, Trump claimed that the U.S. testing program “is so much bigger and more advanced than any other country (we have done a great job on this!) that it shows more cases.” Although the U.S. has completed the highest number of coronavirus tests, it still lags behind other nations in tests per capita, and a higher proportion of tests have also come back positive.
• National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow inaccurately said in a television interview that “hospitalizations may be going up, but that’s because elective procedures are now permitted.” COVID-19 hospitalization figures, which are increasing in some locales, are limited to those with COVID-19 diagnoses.
• Vice President Mike Pence, Trump and Kudlow all suggested that the uptick in COVID-19 cases seen in some states is driven by increases in testing. Testing accounts for some of the rise, but doesn’t explain all of it.
• Oklahoma, the site of Trump’s rally, has seen an increase in the number of people who are “currently hospitalized” with confirmed cases of COVID-19, state data shows. But GOP Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma falsely said of his state: “We continue to see hospitalizations decline.” 
• Similarly, Pence wrongly said that COVID-19 cases in Oklahoma have “declined precipitously.” The state Health Department reports that “Oklahoma has begun experiencing over the past two weeks an increase in the number of cases,” reaching a new single-day high on June 16.

Trump is set to speak at a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 20.

Trump’s Testing Tweet

In a June 15 tweet, Trump once again bragged about America’s ability to test for the coronavirus, leaving the misleading impression that better testing is responsible for the country’s large number of cases. 

“Our testing is so much bigger and more advanced than any other country (we have done a great job on this!) that