White House Continues To Lie About Coronavirus, Including Refusing To Tell Seniors Not To Fly

By Red Painter — March 8, 2020

The White House continues to lie, misrepresent and hide information about coronavirus, including the refusal to publicize recommendations from the medical community that would keep the public safer, particularly if it goes against Donald Trump's false narrative that he has things "totally under control" and "contained".

We know coronavirus is not contained. In fact, it is spreading. Fast. And we do not know how fast because testing is not occuring on a scale that it should be (or at all) and that means significantly more cases are out there, roaming around our communities, infecting everyone in a type of transmission called "community spread".

AM Joy covered this issue from multiple angles this morning.

VELSHI: I'm trying to parse the difference between what is really happening with the government about coronavirus and what Donald Trump says because it is a big distraction. He keeps saying stuff that is not in sync with what the experts are saying.

REID: He tweeted about the perfect plan and everything and I'm getting all the stories of people encountering Trump supporters who don't believe there is coronavirus.

VELSHI: So now I want the government to think about this. We have assembly, people at CPAC who have it. We're doing rallies. I'd love too know what know about how we move forward with this thing instead of the tweets that seem to be down playing it saying the fake news media is responsible.

REID: And you also have to have a government that does believe in the science because they can't read act and react if it doesn't believe that it is real and then the experts like Dr. Fauci feel comfortable talking about the science.

VELSHI: Actually seeing them take something that is science, weather prediction, and change it for political needs makes me wonder do we have a problem with testing kits or does Donald Trump not want to know how many people have coronavirus.

EXACTLY. It all comes down to Trump not wanting to know - and worse, not wanting the public to know. That attitude is what will get people killed.

One of the more scary news revelations was an AP report that said that the White House did not want to disclose publicly that health officials were recommending that "elderly and physically fragile Americans be advised not to fly on commercial airlines." The CDC presented this plan earlier this week as a method of trying to control the virus and reduce exposure to a particularly vulnerable population, but the Trump administration refused to make this public.

After showing a clip of Trump flat out lying about how well the White House is doing in controlling the spread of coronavirus, Reid shared more information about the refusal of the White House to inform the public that certain populations should not fly:

REID: Except that new reporting underscores just how chaotic and inadequate the response has been from the Trump White House. A federal official says that the White House overruled health officials who wanted to recommend that seniors not fly due to concerns about their increased vulnerability. And the Washington Post says "Squandered Time, How The Trump Administration Lost Control Of The Coronavirus Crisis." And the New York Times has this he had headline "Utter confusion at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Debate Raged Over What To Tell The Public."

How much worse will this get because Donald Trump is desperate to win re-election and is panicked about a downturn in the economy? SUBSTANTIALLY worse.