AP FACT CHECK: Trump team's false comfort on schools, virus

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's administration is providing misguided assurances on safety of kids in school during a coronavirus epidemic.

In remarks Sunday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos urged schools to provide full-time, in-person learning in fall even with community transmission of COVID-19 rising in many parts of U.S., suggesting that re is danger “in any way” if kids are in school.

Her statement is unsupported . Some children have become seriously ill from virus, and one of Trump's top health experts stresses that data remain incomplete about potential risks y could spread COVID-19 to adults.

Meanwhile, Trump continued to spread falsehoods about how well U.S. is doing with coronavirus even as U.S. is taking a disproportionate hit from it globally and does t have it under control.

A look at recent claims and reality:

SCHOOLS

DEVOS: “re’s thing in data that suggests that kids being in school is in any way dangerous.” — interview on “Fox News Sunday."

FACTS: That's wrong. Although children are less likely than adults to develop COVID-19, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has neverless counted tens of thousands of infections by virus in Americans younger than 18. It’s premature to claim that re are risks “in any way" seen in data. How significant a risk has t been established.

Apart from potential risks to kids, re is also chance that y would spread disease to more vulnerable adults, such as teachers, parents and grandparents.

DeVos’ false assurance overlooks severe COVID-19 illnesses and some deaths of children in U.S., even though kids in general tend to get less sick from it than adults do. Doctors don’t kw which children are at risk.

CDC in April studied pandemic’s effect on different s in U.S. and reviewed preliminary research in China, where coronavirus started. It said social distancing is important for children, too, for ir own safety and that of ors.

“Whereas most COVID-19 cases in children are t severe, serious COVID-19 illness resulting in hospitalization still occurs in this group,” CDC study says.

In May, CDC also warned doctors to be on lookout for a rare but life-threatening inflammatory reaction in some children who’ve had coronavirus. condition had been reported in more than 100 children in New York, and in some kids in several or states and in Europe, with some deaths.

ncy’s current guidance for communities on reopening of K-12 schools says goal is to “help protect students, teachers, administrators, and staff and slow spread of COVID-19.” guidance says “full sized, in person classes” present “highest risk” of spreading virus and advises face masks, spreading out of desks, staggered schedules, eating meals in classrooms instead of cafeteria as well as “staying home when appropriate” to help avert spikes in virus cases.

Last week, Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus coordinator, said U.S. hasn’t tested eugh kids to actually kw wher y may drive spread of coronavirus.

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VIRUS

TRUMP: “Deaths in U.S. are way down.” — tweet on July 6, one of at least a half dozen heralding a drop in daily deaths from virus.

FACTS: It’s true that deaths dipped as infections spiked in many parts of country. But deaths lag sickness. And w, widely expected upturn in U.S. deaths has begun , driven by fatalities in states in South and West, according to data analyzed by Associated Press.

“It’s a false narrative to take comfort in a lower rate of death,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Tuesday. He advised Americans: “Don’t get yourself into false complacency.”

new AP analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University shows seven-day rolling aver for daily reported deaths in U.S. increased to 664 on Friday from 578 two weeks ago, as deaths rose in more than half states. That’s still well below lethal numbers of April.

“It’s consistently picking up,” said William Han, a Harvard University infectious diseases researcher. “And it’s picking up at time you’d expect it to.”

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TRUMP: “For 1/100th time, reason we show so many Cases, compared to or countries that haven’t done nearly as well as we have, is that our TESTING is much bigger and better. We have tested 40,000,000 people. If we did 20,000,000 instead, Cases would be half, etc. T REPORTED!” — tweet Thursday.

FACTS: His tion that infections are high only because U.S. diagstic testing has increased is false. His own top public health officials have shot down this line of thinking. Infections are rising because people are infecting each or more than y were when most everyone was hunkered down.

It's true that increased testing also contributes to higher numbers. When you look harder, you're going to see more. But testing has uncovered a worrisome trend: percent of tests coming back positive for virus is on rise across nearly entire country.

That's a clear demonstration that sickness is spreading and that U.S. testing system is falling short.

“A high rate of positive tests indicates a government is only testing sickest patients who seek out medical attention and is t casting a wide eugh net,” says Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center , a primary source of updated information on pandemic.

Americans are being confronted with long lines at testing sites, often disqualified if y are t showing symptoms and, if tested, forced to wait many days for results.

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TRUMP on coronavirus: “We have lowest Mortality Rate in World.” – tweet Tuesday.

FACTS: This statement is wholly unsupported.

An accurate death rate is impossible to kw. Every country tests and counts people differently, and some are unreliable in reporting cases. Without kwing true number of people who become infected, it cant be determined what portion of m die.

Using a count kept by Johns Hopkins University , you can compare number of recorded deaths with number of reported cases. That count shows U.S. experiencing more deaths as a percent of cases than most or countries w being hit hard with pandemic. statistics look better for U.S. when list is expanded to include European countries that were slammed early on by virus but w appear to have it under control. Even n, U.S. is t shown to be among best in avoiding death.

Such calculations, though, do t provide a reliable measurement of actual death rates, because of variations in testing and reporting, and Johns Hopkins tally is t meant to be such a measure.

only way to tell how many cases have gone uncounted, and refore what percent of infected people have died from disease, is to do ar kind of test comprehensively, of people’s blood, to find how many people bear immune system antibodies to virus. Globally, that is only being done in select places.

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ECOMY

TRUMP: “Job growth is biggest in history.” — tweet Wednesday.

FACTS: Yes, but only because it is following greatest job losses in history, by far.

U.S. ecomy shed more than 22 million jobs in March and April, wiping out nearly a decade of job growth in just two months, as viral outbreak intensified and nearly all states shut down nessential businesses. Since n, 7.5 million, or about one-third, of those jobs have been recovered as businesses reopened. Even after those gains, unemployment rate is 11.1%, down from April and May but orwise higher than at any point since Depression.

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TRUMP: “Ecomy and Jobs are growing MUCH faster than anyone (except me!) expected.” — tweet Wednesday.

FACTS: t really. It’s true that May’s gain of 2.7 million jobs was unexpected. Ecomists had forecast ar month of job losses. But most ecomists projected hiring would sharply rebound by June or at latest July, once businesses began to reopen. gains kicked in a month earlier than forecast.

w, though, coronavirus cases are rising in most states, imperiling climb back. In six states representing one-third of ecomy — Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, and Texas — goverrs are reversing ir reopening plans , and restart is on pause in 15 or states. Such reversals are keeping layoffs elevated and threatening to weaken hiring.

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TRUMP TEAM ON BIDEN

TRUMP campaign ad, playing out a scenario where a person needing help calls police in a Biden presidency and gets a voice recording: “You have reached 911 police emergency line. Due to defunding of police department, we’re sorry but one is here to take your call.” ad closes with mess: “You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.”

FACTS: Biden has t joined call of protesters who demanded “defund police” after Floyd’s killing. He’s proposed more money for police, conditioned to improvements in ir practices.

“I don’t support defunding police,“ Biden said last month in a CBS interview. But he said he would support tying federal aid to police based on wher “y meet certain basic standards of decency, horableness and, in fact, are able to demonstrate y can protect community, everybody in community.”

Biden’s criminal justice nda, released long before he became Democrats’ presumptive presidential minee, proposes more federal money for “training that is needed to avert tragic, unjustifiable deaths” and hiring more officers to ensure that departments are racially and ethnically reflective of populations y serve.

Specifically, he calls for a $300 million infusion into existing federal community policing grant programs.

That adds up to more money for police, t defunding law enforcement.

Biden also wants federal government to spend more on education, social services and struggling areas of cities and rural America, to address root causes of crime.

Democrats, meanwhile, have pointed to Trump’s repeated proposals in administration’s budget to cut community policing and mediation programs at Justice Department. Congressional Republicans say program can be effectively merged with or divisions, but Democrats have repeatedly blocked effort. program has been used to help provide federal oversight of local police departments.

Despite proposed cuts, Attorney General William Barr last month said that department would use COPS program funding to hire over 2,700 police officers at nearly 600 departments across country.

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VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE: Biden “said that he would, quote, absolutely cut funding for law enforcement.” — remarks Thursday in Philadelphia.

REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE email: “In wake of rioting, looting, and tragic murders ripping apart communities across country, Joe Biden said ‘Yes, absolutely’ he wants to defund police.” — email Wednesday from Steve Guest, RNC’s rapid response director.

FACTS: That’s misleading, a selective use of Biden’s words on subject.

RNC email links to an excerpted video clip of Biden’s conversation with liberal activist Ady Barkan , who endorsed Biden on Wednesday after supporting Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders during Democratic primaries. A full recording of that conversation, provided by Biden campaign to Associated Press, shows he again declined to support defunding police.

Barkan raises issue of police reform and asks wher Biden would funnel money into social services, mental health counseling and affordable housing to help reduce civilian interactions with police.

Biden responds that he is calling for increased funding for mental health providers but “that’s t same as getting rid of or defunding all police” and that both approaches are needed, including more money for community police.

Asked again by Barkan, “so we agree that we can redirect some of funding,” Biden n answers “absolutely yes.”

Biden n gives caveat that he means “t just redirect” federal money potentially but “condition” it on police improvements.

“If y don’t eliminate choke holds, y don’t get (federal) grants, if y don’t do following, y don’t get any help,” Biden replied.

“ vast majority of all police departments are funded by locality, funded by municipality, funded by state,” he added. “It’s only federal government comes in on top of that, and so it says you want help, you have to do following reforms.”

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BIDEN ON TRUMP

BIDEN: “President Trump claimed to American people that he was a wartime leader, but instead of taking responsibility, Trump has waved a white flag, revealing that he ordered slowing of testing and having his administration tell Americans that y simply need to ‘live with it.’’ – statement Wednesday marking rise in U.S. coronavirus infections to more than 3 million.

FACTS: To be clear, government did t slow testing on orders of president.

Trump at first denied he was joking when he told a Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally on June 20 that he said “to my people, ‘Slow testing down, please'" because “y test and y test." Days later he said he didn't really mean it.

In any event, a succession of his public-health officials testified to Congress that president never asked m to slow testing and that y were doing all y could to increase it. But testing remains markedly insufficient.