Dr. Fauci says Trump is 'obviously' wrong that '99%' of coronavirus cases are 'totally harmless'

"I'm trying to figure out where the president got that number," Fauci said.
Overwhelming evidence of Covid-19's effects contradict Trump's statement. Fauci stressed that the virus is unpredictable and impacts people very differently.
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Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said President Donald Trump's recent false claim that "99%" of coronavirus cases in the US are "totally harmless" is "obviously not the case."

Fauci, who's helping lead the administration's pandemic response, told the Financial Times in an interview published Friday that he didn't know why Trump made the false and dangerous statement.

"I'm trying to figure out where the president got that number," Fauci said. "What I think happened is that someone told him that the general mortality is about 1 per cent. And he interpreted, therefore, that 99 per cent is not a problem, when that's obviously not the case."

Trump aggressively downplayed the threat posed by Covid-19 earlier this month even as infections have surged across the Sunbelt and the West.

"There were no tests for a new virus, but now we have tested over 40 million people. But by so doing, we show cases, 99 percent of which are totally harmless," Trump said during a speech at the White House.

Overwhelming evidence of Covid-19's effects contradict Trump's statement. Fauci stressed that the virus is unpredictable and impacts people very differently.

"I have never seen a virus or any pathogen that has such a broad range of manifestations," he said. "Even if it doesn't kill you, even if it doesn't put you in the hospital, it can make you seriously ill."

The president hasn't met with Fauci since June 2 and Fauci told the FT that he hasn't briefed Trump in more than two months.

The White House has also reportedly blocked the infectious disease leader from doing TV interviews. Fauci suggested that might be because he tells truths the administration doesn't want the public to hear.

"I have a reputation, as you probably have figured out, of speaking the truth at all times and not sugar-coating things," he told the FT. "And that may be one of the reasons why I haven't been on television very much lately."

Fauci has repeatedly warned in recent weeks that the US's coronavirus outbreak remains out of control, that the country is still "knee-deep" in the first wave of infections, and that many states and localities have made serious blunders in their responses to the pandemic. He told the FT that the slope of the US's infection curve "still looks like it's exponential."

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Dr. Fauci says Trump is 'obviously' wrong that '99%' of coronavirus cases are 'totally harmless'

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