On Wednesday night, President Trump and government health officials assured the American people that the government is working hard to control the spread of coronavirus.
"The immediate risk to the American public has been and continues to be low," Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said from the White House. "Our containment strategy has been working. At the same time, what every one our experts and leaders have been saying for more than a month now remains true. The degree of risk has the potential to change quickly and we can expect to see more cases in the United States."
"Of the 15 people, the original 15 as I call them, eight of them have returned to their homes to stay in their homes until fully recovered. One is in the hospital and five have fully recovered and one is we think in pretty good shape and is in-between the hospital and going home," Trump said assuredly.
A few of the Democratic presidential candidates somehow managed to even make the health press conference political, trying to suggest he had misled the nation. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg accused Trump of defunding the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Associated Press conducted a quick fact check.
THE FACTS: They’re both wrong to say the agencies have seen their money cut. Bloomberg is repeating the false allegation in a new ad that states the U.S. is unprepared for the virus because of “reckless cuts” to the CDC. Trump’s budgets have proposed cuts to public health, only to be overruled by Congress, where there’s strong bipartisan support for agencies such as the CDC and NIH. Instead, financing has increased.
As the AP continues to explain, the money that the government used to fight the initial outbreak was from a congressional fund created for health emergencies.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) jumped on the AP check and called out the Democrats for "outright lying."
There are Democrats outright lying about the President’s response to coronavirus. Bloomberg is actually running ads that say CDC funding was cut - & it’s patently false.
— Rep. Dan Crenshaw (@RepDanCrenshaw) February 27, 2020
There is no need to politicize this important issue, but they can’t help themselves. https://t.co/LGBEGButJ2
Then there are media like CNN who have been doing a similar number on the president's presser, writing partisan headlines suggesting that Trump is "downplaying" the threat and questioning the CDC's warnings. Another CNN chyron read, "Trump shocked at how many people die of flu each year."
Trump appointed Vice President Mike Pence to lead the newly appointed coronavirus task force. Additionally, he sent a $1.5 billion dollar emergency budget request to Congress to try and tackle the issue.
