While the blame game between the US and China continues, President Donald Trump's recent press conference on Saturday is filled with lies and misinformation about the Coronavirus pandemic that cost over 38,000 lives in the US.
From COVID-19 testing situation in the US to the medical supplies, Trump made so many comments during his White House briefing which can be considered as false claims if people know the real story behind such claims. Here is the truth behind Trump's claims:
US Coronavirus testing
While comparing the COVID-19 testing situation in the US with other countries, Trump alleged that the Democratic governors are deliberately not using testing capacity the federal government has created and they are complaining about the tests.
In the press conference, he mentioned, "Now they're giving you the other -- it's called 'testing, testing.' But they don't want to use all of the capacity that we've created. We have a tremendous capacity ... they know that the governors know that. The Democrat governors know that. They're the ones that are complaining."
It should be noted that there is no evidence which suggests that any governor is deliberately not using available testing capacity. Governors from Democratic and Republican party as well as public health officials around the country have warned that they are still unable to do the amount of testing needed to safely lift social and economic restrictions.
On Friday, Republican Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and his health chief revealed that Coronavirus testing at hospitals in the state was being obstructed by a shortage of critical components. On Thursday, Republican Maryland Governor Larry Hogan said on NBC that Maryland is going to get, "in the next several weeks," to the level of testing needed, and added that "This has been the No. 1 stumbling block in America, the lack of availability of testing."
As reported by CNN, while the Democratic Kansas Governor Laura Kelly said "We have had a very difficult time getting access to tests and all the stuff you need to complete those tests," Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo mentioned that "There are not enough tests being performed in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, North Country, Long Island, Westchester, not for prisoners, not for the black and brown population, not for health care workers, not for police officers, that's true across the board."
Early warning about pandemic
Trump said that "In speaking to the leaders of other countries this morning, they said this is incredible the way you've done this so quickly." He also added that "You know, we're only talking about a few weeks since everybody knew this was such a big problem."
It should be noted that Trump administration knew that Coronavirus is going to hit the US but still the President took it lightly. Along with warnings from international researchers, he also ignored the US intelligence report that was received by the White House in January. Trump and his government overlooked all these facts. Later, he continued playing his own cards claiming that warmer weather in March and April will decrease the infection cases in the US. But now, the US has reported more infection cases (735,086) than any other country in the world.
'Cupboard' Medical supplies
During White House briefing Trump also claimed that he inherited a "bare cupboard" of medical supplies to fight coronavirus from the Obama administration. Trump said, "We started off with a broken system. We inherited a broken, terrible system. And I always say it, our cupboards were bare. We had very little in our stockpile. Now we're loaded up."
The Strategic National Stockpile was not empty before the COVID-19 pandemic. It should be noted that among other resources, the stockpile contains enough smallpox vaccines for every American. Critical supplies which could be used to combat coronavirus were drained and not refilled. Trump did not pay attention to early Coronavirus pandemic warnings and then failed to restock masks and prepare other supplies to fight against the outbreak.
He also claimed that Obama left him with "no ammunition." But as per public comments of military leaders, there was a shortage in certain kinds of munitions, particularly precision-guided bombs, late in the Obama presidency and early in the Trump presidency.
The 'Broken Junk'
Trump said on Saturday briefing that "I inherited broken junk," while talking about Coronavirus testing. A testing kit was created in 2020 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention but it turned out to be faulty. Since this is a new virus, as the SARS-CoV-2 got identified this year, the bad tests couldn't possibly be "inherited."
When Trump first made this same comment in another press conference, Gregg Gonsalves, an assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases at the Yale School of Public Health said, "He is lying 100%. He is lying because he is trying to shift blame to others, even if the attempt is totally nonsensical."
