President Donald Trump said Wednesday he will hold a news conference at the White House at 6 p.m. ET with officials from the Centers for Disease Control to discuss the Coronavirus outbreak and he also complained his enemies are trying to cause a panic.
The president slammed media coverage of the disease and Democratic charges his administration has not done enough to combat it as an attempt to make his administration ‘look as bad as possible.
‘Low Ratings Fake News MSDNC (Comcast) & @CNN are doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus 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!,’ he wrote on Twitter Wednesday morning.
‘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!,’ he added.
He also misspelled the name of the virus in his tweet, writing C-A-R-O-N-A-V-I-R-U-S instead of C-O-R-O-N-A-V-I-R-U-S.
President Trump claimed his administration doing a ‘great’ job combatting Coronavirus
Trump claimed his administration is doing a ‘great’ job combatting the Coronavirus after the CDC warned it was a question of when and not if there will be a major outbreak in the United States.
The president touted his administration’s success via Twitter as he touched down at Joint Base Andrews where he and First Lady Melania Trump were retuning from a state visit to India.
‘Just landed. India was great, trip very successful. Heading to the White House. Meetings and calls scheduled today. @CDCgov, @SecAzar and all doing a great job with respect to Coronavirus! Briefing this afternoon,’ he wrote.
The White House has not released details of the briefing the president mentioned.
Trump and his team are trying to balance containing public alarm with not dismissing a potential health calamity.
The president has focused on showcasing his administration has the situation under control while government health officials have warned people to be prepared for the worst.
Trump spent part of his flight back from India sending retweets about how there is no community outbreak of the Coronavirus in the United States and on his administration’s response to it.
‘There is currently no reported community spread of #COVID19 in the US. People should follow everyday measures to prevent the spread of respiratory viruses, such as staying home when sick’ was one retweet from the CDC the president sent.
Meanwhile Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar will be testifying on Capital Hill about his department’s budget request but is bound to get questions about the disease particularly after Democrats criticized Trump’s request for $2.5 billions in federal funds to combat it as too little, too late.
President Trump argued during a press conference in New Delhi on Tuesday that the situation ‘is very well under control in our country.’
‘We have very few people with it,’ he said. ‘But the people are getting better. They’re all getting better.’
His defense comes as the markets plunged two days in a row over fears of a possible outbreak and Democratic presidential candidates slammed Trump’s response to the Coronavirus in their debate Tuesday night.
‘This president has not invested like he should have in his budget. He tried to cut back on the CDC. He tried to cut back on the international organizations that would coordinate with the rest of the world. He hasn’t yet really addressed the nation on this topic,’ said Amy Klobuchar.
And former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg said: ‘The president fired the pandemic specialist in this country two years ago. There’s nobody here to figure out what the hell we should be doing.’
The CDC on Tuesday told parents to prepare their children for the possibility of school closures should the disease spread.
So far, 57 cases have been confirmed – 14 in the nation, 40 from citizens repatriated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan and three evacuated from China.
Dr Nancy Messonier (pictured) of the CDC says the public needs to prepare if the coronavirus spreads in the US and suggested parents asks schools if they plans for doing classes over the Internet
Doctors look at a scan of a patient with coronavirus at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital, February 16
Doctors in China look at test results as more than 80,000 people have been infected world wide with coronavirus
Dr. Nancy Messonier, CDC’s director of the Center for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said the public needs to be ready if the virus becomes a pandemic.
‘It’s not so much of a question of if this will happen in this country any more but a question of when this will happen,’ she told reporters in a media call on Tuesday.
‘We are asking the American public to prepare for the expectation that this might be bad.’
Worldwide, more than 80,000 people have been infected with coronavirus and more than 2,700 people have died – mostly older patients with pre-existing conditions.