President Donald Trump tweeted on Wednesday morning about low ratings, “panicking markets” and alarmism by CNN and “MSDNC” when downplaying the threat that Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) poses to the United States.
“Low Ratings Fake News MSDNC (Comcast) & @CNN are doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus (sic) look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible. Likewise their incompetent Do Nothing Democrat comrades are all talk, no action. USA in great shape! @CDCgov,” he said. “I will be having a News Conference at the White House, on this subject, today at 6:00 P.M. CDC representatives, and others, will be there. Thank you!”
We’ll see what that press conference, and the administration’s response, entails.
But speaking of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Director the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Nancy Messonnier has already said that the CDC expects to see “community spread” of Coronavirus in the United States.
It’s not an “if,” but a “when” and a “how bad,” she said. (You can read more about Coronavirus on the CDC website).
“It’s not a question of if this will happen but when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illnesses,” she said. The death toll is in the thousands in China and there are at least 57 cases in America. Meanwhile, we are still trying to figure out funding and whether we have enough medical supplies to combat a pandemic.
Arch anti-Trump critic and attorney George Conway immediately called the tweet “deranged.”
“I know everyone’s used to it by now, but please take a minute to fully contemplate how mentally deranged someone has to be to tweet this,” Conway shot back.
Others wondered if they should be worried that the president misspelled the disease, wondered why Trump was politicizing this threat, and wondered whether a Coronavirus czar would be appointed.
People have expressed concern about the administration’s preparedness in general to combat the novel virus.
[Image via CNN screengrab]
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