Trump slammed for claiming almost all US coronavirus infections are ‘harmless’

Experts have pushed back on Donald Trump’s claims that almost all US infections are “totally harmless”, despite another record virus week.

Experts have pushed back against Donald Trump’s latest round of baffling coronavirus claims, with the US President stating 99 per cent of his nation’s coronavirus infections are “totally harmless”, despite another horror week of new cases.

As America reported its third straight day with more than 50,000 new infections the President, in a message to the nation celebrating Independence Day, claimed “a tremendous victory” was at hand, dismissing widespread criticism of his administration’s slow and ineffective response to a pandemic that has infected close to three million Americans and killed as many as 129,900.

“It’s going to happen and it’s going to happen big. Our country will be greater than ever before,” he said, as Florida – one of the worst-hit states – and Texas reported record increases.

Again, Trump returned to his much-loved (and completely baseless) complaint that America’s high caseload is purely a result of its testing rates.

“Now we have tested almost 40 million people. By doing so, we show cases, 99 per cent of which are totally harmless. Results that no other country can show because no other country has the testing that we have, not in terms of the numbers or in terms of quality.”

It’s unclear how the President came up with the “99 per cent harmless” figure.

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Donald Trump has said 99 per cent of America’s coronavirus infections are “totally harmless”, despite the nation recording a horror week of new cases. Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP

Trump said America was “doing better than any country had done in history … and then we got hit with this terrible plague from China and now we’re getting closer to fighting our way out of it”.

“Fighting our way out of it”, by Trump’s definition, clearly doesn’t account for the fact COVID-19 cases are rising in 37 states, with the past week resulting in the five highest single-day totals of the pandemic.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner warned Texas’ hospitals are being pushed to the brink to accommodate new infections.

“I will tell you, a month ago one in 10 people were testing positive. Today, it’s one in four,” Mr Turner told CBS.

“The number of people who are getting sick and going to the hospitals has exponentially increased. The number of people in our ICU beds has exponentially increased. In fact, if we don’t get our hands around this virus quickly, in about two weeks our hospital system could be in serious, serious trouble.”

Officials have also expressed concern as cases continue to spike, partially attributing the surges to states reopening too early.

“There’s no doubt that the fact that when we reopened, people started socialising as if the virus didn’t exist,” Miami Mayor Francis Suaurez told ABC.

In Arizona, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego said she had similar regrets.

“We opened way too early in Arizona,” Ms Gallego said.

“We were one of the last states to go to stay-at-home and one of the first to re-emerge. And we re-emerged at zero to 60.”

Last week, top US virus official and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr Anthony Fauci, testified before a Senate committee, warning America could soon see 100,000 new cases a day and that the death toll “is going to be very disturbing”.

“The numbers speak for themselves,” Dr Fauci said.

“I’m very concerned, I’m not satisfied with what’s going on, because we’re going in the wrong direction. Clearly we’re not in total control.”

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Former director of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Tom Frieden, wrote in a piece for The Guardianthat coronavirus “has the upper hand” in the US.

“The problem is that there is a train of thought in the Trump administration that if we ignore the virus it is just going to go away. The truth is the opposite: ignore it and it will come back with greater force,” he wrote.

Professor of clinical public health and director of the National Centre for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University, Irwin Redlener, wrote in the same Guardian piece that the White House is “living in a dreamland”.

“Messaging in particular from the president and vice-president has been inaccurate, dishonest and flawed,” Professor Redlener wrote.

“The White House is living in a dreamland that everything is under control.”