Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images
President Trump denied in a Thursday tweet that he told Fox News' Sean Hannity that people who are feeling sick should continue to go to work amid the coronavirus outbreak.
The state of play: While Trump didn't explicitly say that sick Americans should go to work, he did state that those with mild coronavirus cases can still recover while going about their daily lives — an assertion that contradicts public health officials' recommendations on how to manage the illness.
"I NEVER said people that are feeling sick should go to work. This is just more Fake News and disinformation put out by the Democrats, in particular MSDNC. Comcast covers the CoronaVirus situation horribly, only looking to do harm to the incredible & successful effort being made!"— Trump's tweet
- What Trump said on "Hannity": "If we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by sitting around and even going to work — some of them go to work, but they get better."
- What the CDC recommends: "People who are mildly ill with COVID-19 are able to isolate at home during their illness. You should restrict activities outside your home, except for getting medical care. Do not go to work, school, or public areas. Avoid using public transportation, ride-sharing, or taxis."
In the same interview, Trump contradicted the World Health Organization's assertion that the virus has a 3.4% mortality rate, calling it "a false number" because of the number of people who have had "very mild" cases and recovered without being diagnosed.
- "They don't know about the easy cases because the easy cases don't go to the hospital. They don't report to doctors or the hospital in many cases. So I think that number is really high. Personally, I would say that number is way under 1%," he claimed without evidence.
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