‘The Deaths Are Real Deaths’: Fauci, Surgeon General Push Back on Trump Claims of Covid Deaths Being Exaggerated

Dr. Anthony Fauci and Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams both pushed back on President Donald Trump’s claims that covid cases and deaths are being “far exaggerated.”

Trump — who repeatedly claimed coverage of covid would fade away after the election — is now attacking the CDC and claiming the death toll is being exaggerated.

On ABC’s This Week, Martha Raddatz read out the president’s tweet to Fauci.

Fauci said, “The deaths are real deaths.”

“All you need to do is go out into the trenches, go to the hospitals, see what the health care workers are dealing with. They are under very stressed situations. In many areas of the country, the hospital beds are stretched, people are running out of beds, running out of trained personnel who are exhausted right now. That’s real. That’s not fake. That’s real,” he added.

Meanwhile, over on CNN, Jake Tapper asked Adams about the tweet and what it’s like when the president “spreads these lies about the pandemic” to millions of people.

Adams expressed how “challenging” it’s been to “get health information to the American people in the midst of the politics.”

“I don’t speak for the president. I speak for the office of the Surgeon General and the public health service and I’m focused on making sure people can get the information they need,” he said.

Tapper directly asked him if the recorded death toll is real.

“From a health perspective, I have no reason to doubt those numbers,” Adams responded, “and I think people need to be very aware that it’s not just about the deaths, as we talked about earlier, it’s about the hospitalizations, the capacity. These cases are having an impact.”

You can watch above, via ABC and CNN.

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