President Donald Trump on Monday claimed the worsening coronavirus outbreak in the United States is a “Fake News Media Conspiracy,” saying the nation has the most cases in the world only because “we TEST, TEST, TEST.”
“Corrupt Media conspiracy at all time high,” Trump said in a tweet Monday morning. “On November 4th., topic will totally change,” he added, referring to the day after the presidential election.
Trump’s tweet came as the U.S. is reporting a record-breaking number of new coronavirus cases. On Sunday, the country reported a weekly average of about 68,767 new cases every day, the highest seven-day average recorded yet, according to a CNBC analysis of Hopkins data. The U.S. reported 60,789 new Covid cases Sunday after daily cases reached 83,757 on Friday, passing the last record of roughly 77,300 cases seen on July 16, according to Hopkins data.
Trump, who tested positive for the virus earlier this month, has repeatedly downplayed the virus and insisted that the U.S. has more cases than any other country only because the nation tests more people. But public health officials and infectious disease experts dispute that claim, saying the rate of tests that are positive and hospitalizations are both on the rise in several states.
The overall U.S. positivity rate, or the percentage of Covid-19 tests that come back positive, is at 6.2%, up from around 5.2% last week, according to Hopkins. Illinois, where businesses are bracing for new coronavirus restrictions amid a rise in new Covid cases, has a positivity rate of 6.3%. Wisconsin, which hit a record high in average daily cases Sunday, has a positivity rate of 16%. Kentucky, another state that hit a new high, has a positivity rate of 8.4%.
If President Trump had listened more to public health officials and controlled the COVID-19 epidemic in the country, there wouldn't be so much of this so-called "Fake News Media Conspiracy."