President Donald Trump has stated another clear falsehood, this time making the bogus claim COVID-19 "will go away" without a vaccine in direct contradiction of American health experts.
His remarks to reporters Friday at the White House was the latest variation of his lies about the disease going back to February, at the very start of the COVID-19 crisis in the United States. On Feb. 10, Trump declared "a lot of people think that (the coronavirus) goes away in April with the heat ... Typically, that will go away in April."
Seventeen days later, he followed-up this falsehood with another: "It's going to disappear. One day it's like a miracle, it will disappear. And from our shores, you know, it could get worse before it gets better. Could maybe go away...."
On Friday, Trump reworded these statements to refer to the COVID-19 vaccines now being developed worldwide.
"This is going to go away without a vaccine. It's gonna go away. And we're not going to see it again, hopefully, after a period of time," claimed Trump falsely. "You may have some flare-ups, and I guess I would expect that."
Trump's statements contradict those repeatedly being made by America's foremost infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Last week Dr. Fauci told the American people the COVID-19 pandemic is "not going to be over to the point of our being able to not do any mitigation until we have a scientifically sound, safe and effective vaccine."
He's also repeatedly said a vaccine is still at least a year to 18 months from being made available to the public. Incredibly, Trump lied when he said American medical professionals told him COVID-19 will disappear without a vaccine.
"I just rely on what doctors say," said Trump. "They say it's going to go. That doesn't mean this year. It doesn't mean, frankly, it's going to be gone before the fall or after the fall, but eventually it's going to go away. The question is whether we will need a vaccine. At some point it will probably go away by itself."
Incredibly, Trump on May 3 said, "this country needs the vaccine." He also predicted up to 100,000 Americans will die of COVID-19, but believes a vaccine will be available for Americans by the end of the year.
"Many companies are I think close, because I meet with the heads of them, and I find it a very interesting subject, because it's so important, but I think we'll have a vaccine by the end of the year," said Trump.
