Published 11:42 IST, April 7th 2020
Donald Trump confuses ventilators with whistleblowers during COVID-19 briefing
During the daily televised coronavirus task force briefing, the United States President Donald Trump confused whistleblowers with ventilators on April 6.
During the daily televised coronavirus task force briefing, the United States President Donald Trump confused whistleblowers with ventilators on April 6. Amid global health crisis when the US is witnessing a spike in coronavirus cases and the fatalities, a reporter sparked a question about impeachment and Michael Atkinson’s job in it. However, after giving a befitting reply to the journalist when the next question came at the US President about New York governor being desperate to get ventilators to treat COVID-19 patients that he is planning to get some from China, Trump confused a machine with ‘whistleblower’.
While answering the question about shortage of ventilators in New York, Trump said, “Two very good friends of mine brought him those whistleblower... brought him those ventilators, right? Two very good friends of mine — they brought them. If you’d like their name, I’ll give you their name.”
In terms of coronavirus outbreak, Trump has claimed on April 6 that they are learning more information about the “Invisible Enemy”, which is the highly contagious coronavirus. Trump also said that COVID-19, that has claimed over 10,943 lives and infected 367,650, is “tough” but said the US is “tougher”. However, Trump’s optimistic tweet came at the time when the US officials have started raising warnings for the peak of the pandemic as the national death toll crossed 10,000.
Earlier, the upcoming days were deemed as a “horrific point” of the coronavirus outbreak by Trump. Other officials have even called it “Pearl Harbour moment” “9/11 moment” while laying emphasis on practising social distancing. According to reports, Anthony Fauci, the senior American scientist also raised an alarm for an “escalation” in the pandemic and added that US citizens should be expecting a “bad week”. While talking to an international media outlet, Fauci admitted that the US officials “do not have it in control”. He said that saying that would be a “false statement”.
Coronavirus outbreak
After originating from China’s “wet markets”, the coronavirus has now claimed over 74,782 lives worldwide as of April 7. According to the tally by international news agency, the pandemic has now spread to 209 countries and has infected at least 1,347,587 people. Out of the total infections, 286,453 have been recovered but the easily spread virus is continuing to disrupt many lives. Major cities have been put under lockdown in almost all countries and the economy is struggling.
Updated 11:42 IST, April 7th 2020