By Fred Lucas | The Daily Signal
President Donald Trump on Thursday credited enhanced testing for the fact that the United States now has the most confirmed cases of coronavirus in the world — surpassing China, where the pandemic originated.
“It’s a tribute to our testing,” the president said during the daily coronavirus press briefing at the White House. “No. 1, you don’t know what the numbers are in China. China tells you the numbers.”
Trump, who again used the term “Chinese virus” without apology, said he would speak Thursday night to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“We’ll have a good conversation, I’m sure,” Trump said. “But you just don’t know. What are the numbers [in China]?”
President Donald Trump with Vice President Mike Pence, chief of the Coronavirus Task Force
As for the U.S., he said, “We are testing tremendous numbers of people.”
The New York Times first reported that the United States had surpassed all other countries in confirmed cases of COVID-19, the infectious disease caused by the new coronavirus.
The Times based its conclusion on data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, information from states, and other sources.
Even as left-leaning media outlets attacked Trump for referring to the coronavirus as “the Chinese virus” or “the Wuhan virus,” the Times acknowledged that “Chinese leaders … were slow to respond to the outbreak that began in the city of Wuhan, as local officials suppressed news of the outbreak.”
Chinese government officials have said the U.S. Army started the disease and planted it in Wuhan.
The Times said at least 81,321 Americans were infected by the coronavirus, and more than 1,000 have died.
That count is higher than the official government tally by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as of noon Thursday, reporting 68,440 cases of COVID-19 and 994 deaths.
The president continued to insist that much, if not all, of the U.S. economy has to reopen soon. He has suggested Easter Sunday, April 12, as a goal, but that California, New York, and Washington are among states or regions where it likely will take longer.
“We have to go back,” Trump said. “This is the United States of America.”
When Americans go back to work, they “are going to be practicing, as much as you can, social distancing,” he said. “We have got to start the process pretty soon.”
One day after Trump indicated he was going to stop using the term, a reporter asked the president whether China’s Xi had asked him to stop referring to “the Chinese virus.”
“Nobody spoke to me about it. I think it was fine, though,” Trump said, adding:
I talk about the Chinese virus and I mean it. That’s where it came from. If you look at Ebola, if you look at Lyme, Connecticut, look at all these horrible diseases, they seem to come with the name with the location. This was the Chinese virus.
Ebola was named after a river in Zaire, now called the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Lyme disease after a town in Connecticut.
As for the coronavirus, New York is the hardest-hit state in the country. Trump announced that the Comfort, a huge Navy hospital ship, will depart Norfolk, Virginia, on Saturday and arrive Monday in New York Harbor to provide help for the state’s residents.
Trump said he would attend the ship’s departure in Virginia to “kiss it goodbye.”
The ship is “fully loaded with medical supplies,” he said.
Maintenance work was supposed to take three weeks, but the Navy completed the repairs much more quickly, Trump said he told New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo earlier in the day.
All State governors, especially Cuomo, knew they had to take drastic measures to prevent the spread of the virus at least two months ago.
Did they act? Did they declare a state of emergency?
NO.
Did they have the powers to act?
YES
Now they blame the federal government for its “late actions”.
Pelosi held up the relief bill hostage for at least a week, until she got the PORK she wanted
While the Forest fire was burning, she told the firemen to take a week off, while people were dying by the scores, and now she blames Trump for being DEADLY.
She has blind hatred and no shame, and was gloating/bragging about the relief bill outcome.
About three weeks ago, three of my family members in New Jersey and North Carolina were infected, sick, never tested, luckily recovered without hospital help.
Just finished watching the presidents address. Well it’s the two week mark guess I’m wrong on the really bad flu idea.
It is really nice to see the new spirit. Hope we can keep the numbers down. It was very interesting to see the address, you learn so much of what is being done, things you never see in the regular press. It would be great if all the newspapers and tv programs carried the entire meeting.
It would also be very nice if all the local press carried our Governor’s weekly and address in it’s entirety. People can comment and interpret after. I’m still of the mind we got swindled out of trillions of dollars. They’ll put two men and truck in prison for buying up Purell and reselling it, but our politicians get a free pass on loading up pet projects and port while the country is in desperation. In my book that’s way worse.
Hopefully there is a new spirit, one of Love, Joy and Peace coming across our country, fighting evil. His words would have made a great sermon, though I don’t thing he realized that. TGBTG
Fauci just announced on national news that the death rate could be 100 to 200,000, That would be less than 2x our flu epidemic a few years ago or a bit more than 3x that year for the pandemic. How may people have already had the virus and didn’t know it? Could this virus have been around for months and the flu deaths we’ve been having were already c-19? Good questions we should be looking for.
Dying of the flu is serious stuff, it takes people out without question.
Hopefully with some good sanitation and decent drugs we’ll be able to lower these numbers substantially. Let’s hope for continued good news after they took all our money, its safe for us to get better news.
The United States now has the most “confirmed” cases of coronavirus in the world,
surpassing China where the pandemic originated………………..Sure we do !!
Like we are to believe anything about the “Wuhan Virus” coming from it’s breeding
ground in China, that has inflected ” Death ” on the world, Communist China will never
give the real ” confirmed” numbers or take responsibility !!
The US has been infected, New York City is the hub for this ” Wuhan Virus” with all the
travel into an out of the City, any wonder why ??
The City should have stopped all travel ” day one ” now they have the highest numbers
in the US, another liberal run City, now at least the Governor is now trying to curtail this
dilemma, crying to the President every day.
China needs to be held accountable, and the US needs to wake up to the Globalization of
our manufacturing.
NYC hosts the “United Nations” those folks immune from our laws.
I believe they are free to fly/flit all over the earth to every nation, take anything they want, and bring back
anything they want. Washington State has many talented Orientals working in the Digital industries.
New Orleans went ahead with Mardi Gras.
It IS the “Chinese Flu, the Wuhan Flu” – no place here for pretty language. When you see video of their “food Markets” your stomach will turn – and infections come immediately to mind.
Any flu unfortunately takes many Old persons with limited resistance. How many have died of other flu this year?