By Ennan Qiu

US President Donald Trump knowingly downplayed COVID-19’s deadliness and infectiousness by comparing it to the flu even though he knew otherwise, a newly leaked tape shows. 

In the bombshell audio clip, Trump can be heard telling journalist Bob Woodward on February 7 that he knew Covid-19 was deadlier than the flu and primarily spread through the air, in contrast to public statements he made before and after the interview.

“It’s also more deadly than (…) you know, your, even your strenuous flus”, Trump said. He continued: “You know, people don’t realise, we lose 25,000, 30,000 people a year [in America].” Who would ever think that, right?” 

This new information comes as a shock to many as it contradicts the statements made by Trump before and after the interview. A post by him on Twitter, dated March 9 read: 

By September 17, the comparison seemed ludicrous, as the US had reached 196,000 coronavirus deaths, far exceeding that of the seasonal flu.

One week prior to the March 9 tweet, Trump had attacked Democrats at a rally for “politicising” the pandemic, calling it “their new hoax” and not missing the opportunity to employ irrelevant, personal attacks on Democrats such as “...they have no clue, they can’t even count their votes in Iowa”.

In response to the recent revelations, Donald Trump strongly defended his earlier statements, arguing that he was “trying to avoid panic” and that he was “a cheerleader for this country”. However, his light-heartedness and public optimism did not improve the situation, with entire states having had to lockdown, many losing their loved ones and the healthcare system verging on collapse. His failure to give accurate information or take the threat seriously cheerled the country into its worst recession since the Great Depression, with the unemployment rate rising to 14.7% in April, and still at a significant 8.4% by August.

Many well-known comedians, celebrities and politicians responded to Trump’s attempt at damage control with pure astonishment. The Daily Show’s host, Trevor Noah said shortly after the audio was released: “You’re a cheerleader? No [expletive], you’re not a cheerleader, you’re the coach! When you see that your team is headed for a huge defeat, you come up with some plays, right? You don’t just stand on the sidelines waving pom-poms and saying everything is going to be OK.”

Jimmy Fallon remarked: “Yeah, Trump is a cheerleader for our country. Then he proved it by leading a fun call-and-response with the press. He was like, ‘What do we need?’ The press was like, ‘A plan!’ He was like, ‘When do we need it?’ ‘Six months ago!’”

This is not the first time Trump has been accused of failing to contain the deadly pandemic. Back in June, experts projected that around 80-90% or 96,000-108,000 of the nearly 120,000 American Covid-19 deaths could have been prevented if lockdowns and social distancing measures were put in place merely two weeks sooner. Had America taken care of the virus as effectively as South Korea, Australia and Singapore, around 99% of those 117,858 deaths might have been avoided.

Table highlighting the magnitude of America’s failure to contain the pandemic. (Source: statnews.com)

Just last Sunday (13 September), Donald Trump spoke to thousands of supporters at an indoor rally in Nevada, breaking the state’s restrictions on gatherings of 50 people or more. This came as US coronavirus deaths neared 200,000.

On Wednesday (16 September), Trump denied downplaying the virus and said Americans will develop “herd mentality”, apparently referring to the concept of herd immunity. He went on to say that the virus “is going to disappear” and that a vaccine could be ready in three to four weeks, despite claiming on Fox News just hours earlier that it may come in “four weeks...could be eight weeks”. Democrats expressed concern that Trump is putting political pressure on government regulatory bodies and scientists to approve a rushed vaccine before November in hopes of helping his dwindling election chances.

Many of his own experts, including top US government infectious disease doctor Anthony Fauci, said vaccine approval is more likely towards the end of the year.

It is clear that Trump’s failure to act on time has been catastrophic. He has intentionally downplayed the deadliness and infectiousness of the virus, compared it to the flu when he knew otherwise, called it a hoax, told people that mask-wearing isn’t as effective as it is and then refused to admit his wrongdoing. On November 3rd, Americans will decide the outcome of not just their country’s domestic Covid-19 outbreak but the climate crisis. It might just mean the difference between life and death.