President Donald Trump believes “virtually nobody” is affected by COVID-19, despite the rising death toll and warnings from public health experts.
At his campaign rally on Monday evening in Swanton, Ohio, Trump said, “We now know the disease. We didn’t know it, now we know it.”
Trump told his supporters that the coronavirus “really affects” those who are elderly “with heart problems and other problems.”
He continued to say, “In some states, thousands of people — nobody young. Below the age of 18, like, nobody. They have a strong immune system, who knows? Take your hat off to the young, because they have a hell of an immune system.”
Trump then wrongly stated, “But it affects virtually nobody. It’s an amazing thing.”
Watch Trump’s comments below:
“It affects virtually nobody,” Trump says of the coronavirus, which has now killed 200,000 Americans and counting pic.twitter.com/qHrZvUWNhX
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 22, 2020
The president’s remarks come as the U.S. has reported more than 6.8 million positive coronavirus cases. The country has seen nearly 200,000 deaths due to the virus, and roughly 4.3 million reported recoveries.
Though Trump incorrectly claimed the virus “affects virtually no one,” the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has indicated that “COVID-19 mortality is higher in persons with underlying medical conditions and in those aged ≥85 years.”
As of Sept. 16, of all the deaths involving COVID-19, there have been many fewer deaths in younger people than older people, according to CDC statistics. For the age of 15-24, there have been 333 deaths reported, and those between the age of 5-14 there have been 30 deaths reported. This is a contrast to 1,405 deaths of people aged 25-34 and a stark contrast to 56,525 deaths reported of those aged 85 years or older.
Dr. Anthony Fauci — the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — was asked during Monday night’s interview on “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” if he was “to rate America’s response to the coronavirus on a scale of one to 10.”
Fauci responded, “We have in this country now, you know, close to 200,000 deaths. We have six million-plus infections. You can’t look at that and say that’s terrific.”
