Trump proved once again that he's dangerously untethered to reality during a phone-in interview with is favorite morning show on his propaganda network.
Trump was asked about how we can safely reopen schools from cohost Pete Hegseth, and once again pretended that the coronavirus is going to just magically go away, and then lied about children being "virtually immune" to the virus.
If you look at children, children are almost, and I would almost say definitely, but almost immune from this disease. So few... and they’ve gotten stronger. Hard to believe. I don’t know how you feel about it, but they have much stronger immune systems than we do, somehow, for this.
And they do it... they don’t have a problem. They just don’t have a problem.
Here's more on that from CNN:
The President also brought up that only one minor had died from coronavirus in the state of New Jersey and that he suspected the child was diabetic. He also suggested that children under the diabetic child’s age were also even more immune.
Remember: But at least two children have died from coronavirus in New Jersey and both were under the age of five.
The President also said older teachers should wait out the pandemic before returning to work in classrooms.
Last month, Trump asserted that children do not catch or spread the coronavirus easily and that he’s comfortable with his children and grandchildren returning to school.
What we know about kids and coronavirus: CNN previously reported that researchers in South Korea have found that children between the ages of 10 and 19 can transmit Covid-19 within a household just as much as adults, according to research published in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. They also found that children ages 9 and under transmitted the virus within their household at rates that were a lot lower.
US Surgeon General Jerome Adams told CBS News last month that though the risk to children getting coronavirus is low, they can still transmit it to others.
"We know the risk is low to the actual students. But we know they can transmit to others. … We need to take measures to make sure we protect those who are vulnerable either because they are older or they have chronic medical conditions," Adams said.
And as The Guardian recently documented, Trump has been repeatedly been making the claim that the virus is going to just disappear for the last six months:
- 20 January: ‘We have it under control’
- 26 February: ‘It’s going to disappear’
- 10 March: ‘It will go away’
- 29 April: ‘It’s gonna be gone’
- 11 May: ‘We have prevailed’
- 17 June: ‘It’s fading away’
- 19 July: ‘I’ll be right eventually’
And now we can add today to that list.
