Trump Slammed for False Claim Cases Only Surging in US Because of Testing: ‘Tell This to Hospitals’ Over Capacity

Ken MeyerJul 9th, 2020, 11:23 am
 

Alex Wong/Getty Images

President Donald Trump made a garbled, misleading attempt to argue that the United States is only seeing record number of coronavirus cases because of testing.

“For the 1/100th time,” Trump said, “the reason we show so many Cases, compared to other 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. NOT REPORTED!”

There are two obvious problems with Trump’s premise. First, the percentage of people testing positive is increasing in the United States. And second, countries like the United Kingdom have similar testing per capita than the United States — and less cases.

In the past, Trump has repeatedly claimed that increased testing is responsible for the rise in U.S. cases — though many have pointed out the spread of Covid-19 occurs regardless of whether we can test for it. Trump’s latest comment comes weeks after his claim in Tulsa that he urged officials to slow down coronavirus testing.

The Washington Post’s Philip Bump has compiled data refuting Trump’s claim, writing “states that have seen increases in cases are more likely to also see increases in coronavirus-related deaths — deaths that are not occurring simply because the patients were tested.”

Many on Twitter also pointed out the logical fallacy in Trump’s testing claim, as well as the fact that the country currently has the highest number of deaths in the world.

You may have also noticed the president’s odd claim that his tweet is a reminder “For the 1/100th time.” You’re not alone.

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