US President Donald Trump blames Democrats, media for making the coronavirus outbreak bigger than it seems in a Tweet on Monday.
"The Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat Party, is doing everything within its semi-considerable power (it used to be greater!) to inflame the CoronaVirus situation, far beyond what the facts would warrant. Surgeon General, 'The risk is low to the average American,'” Trump Tweeted regarding the hype surrounding coronavirus outbreak.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 2000 points the same morning.
"So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on,” Trump continued, trying to calm his followers as the global markets shrink. “At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!”
Before the second Tweet, Health and Human Secretary Alex Azar was telling Fox News how serious COVID-19 is. “Make no mistake, this is a very serious health problem. Nobody is trying to minimize that. It is a very serious public health threat to the people of the United States."
"President Trump is leading a whole of government response with the vice president helping him on the public health issues we're facing with the novel coronavirus. That is his number one concern in terms of the economy. He and his economic team have the tools to keep this economy going strong," said Azar in front of the press on Monday. "But the public health and protecting the American people is the number one priority for all of us."
During his visit at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Trump assured the public that “anyone who wants a test can get a test."
"As of right now and yesterday, anybody that needs a test (can have one), that’s the important thing, and the tests are all perfect, like the letter was perfect, the transcription was perfect,” he stated.
In an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America," Former Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert said he considers the outbreak as a "leadership opportunity" for Trump.
"This is a leadership opportunity for the president to paint for the American people a picture of what it's going to look like in a number of week, month, up to a year," Bossert said. "We don't have a crystal ball but that's what leaders are for and I think it's fair to say without being an alarmist that at least the math, at least the numbers suggest that we are anywhere from eight days to would weeks from being in an exponential growth environment."
