Trump’s COVID-19 Misinformation Since Testing Positive

Even after contracting the coronavirus and being hospitalized, President Donald Trump has continued to downplay the risks of COVID-19 and exaggerate the progress the U.S. has made in fighting the pandemic.

• Trump told Americans to not let the coronavirus “dominate you,” saying, “You’re going to beat it.” Of course, not everyone has or will survive, and some survivors will have lasting effects. (Read more.)
• The president made a flawed comparison between COVID-19 and seasonal flu, incorrectly saying that “sometimes over 100,000” people die from flu each year. The highest estimated death toll from flu in the past decade was in 2017-2018, with 61,000 deaths. (Read more.)
• The president talked up the effectiveness of COVID-19 therapeutics and inaccurately attributed some of those successes to his administration. Few options exist for most patients. (Read more.)
• After his release from the hospital, Trump claimed to be feeling “better than 20 years ago,” but his own physician cautioned that he might not be “out of the woods” yet. (Read more.)
• Saying COVID-19 vaccines “are coming momentarily,” the president once again exaggerated when the public can expect to get a coronavirus shot. (Read more.)

Some Won’t ‘Beat’ COVID-19

After he returned to the White House from Walter Reed hospital on Oct. 5, Trump released a video in which he gave a pep talk of sorts: “I learned so much about coronavirus and one thing that’s for certain: Don’t let it dominate you. Don’t be afraid of it. You’re going to beat it,” he said.

Of course, not everyone is going to “beat it.” More than 210,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States, and more than 1 million worldwide.

It’s true that the overwhelming majority of people who have contracted COVID-19 have survived it. The case fatality ratein the United States is now 2.8% — that’s the percentage of those with confirmed cases who have died. And since not everyone who has been infected has been tested,