Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Trump's Spin On COVID Exposure Dismays Experts, Labeled False By Facebook
San Francisco Chronicle: Health Experts Outraged By Trump’s Response To Contracting COVID-19
President Trump’s cavalier attitude toward his COVID-19 diagnosis has alarmed infectious disease experts, who fear that the president is spreading false and dangerous information about the illness that has killed more than 210,000 Americans and infected over 7 million. On Tuesday, just a day after returning to the White House from a military hospital where he received a mixture of experimental treatments over the weekend, Trump fired off a series of social media posts that downplayed the severity of COVID-19. He wrongfully repeated the claim that the disease is less lethal than the seasonal flu. (Vaziri and Ho, 10/6)
Politico: Trump Is His Own Covid Messenger. Allies Say That’s The Problem.
In the days after Donald Trump revealed he was infected with coronavirus, the president’s aides have given out misleading information, contradicted each other and refused to answer questions about an infection timeline. Trump’s doctor even admitted he had misled Americans in an attempt to reflect an “upbeat attitude.” It was all for Trump. (Kumar, 10/6)
AP: Experts Call Trump's Rosy Virus Message Misguided
It is true that the vast majority of people who get COVID-19 develop only mild symptoms. But experts can’t predict which patients will develop dangerous or deadly infections. And only a small percentage of Americans have been sickened by the coronavirus, meaning the vast majority are still at risk for infection. It is true, as Trump said in the video, that medicines have been found that can treat the virus, reducing chances for severe illness and death. But there is still no cure for it and no definitive date for when an effective vaccine might become widely available. (Tanner, 10/6)
USA Today: Trump Blasted China For COVID-19 'Secrecy.' Now WH Is Called Evasive
For months President Donald Trump has insisted that Chinese President Xi Jinping's administration needs to be held fully accountable for what he has declared is the "secrecy, deception and cover-up" that enabled COVID-19 to spread all over the world. In the early days of the pandemic, China arrested and then silenced doctors who expressed concern about a strange new respiratory illness that appeared to be upending patterns of life and work across the sprawling city of Wuhan. Now it's the Trump administration that appears to be hush-hush when it comes to revealing information about how coronavirus spread all over the White House. (Hjelmgaard, 10/6)
ABC News: 'I Had To Do It': Trump Suggests He Got Virus As Act Of Political Courage
What exactly did President Donald Trump mean when he said Monday, after spending three nights in the hospital dealing with a severe case of COVID-19: "I knew there's danger to it -- but I had to do it." In a video Trump tweeted soon after returning to the White House Monday evening, he spoke directly to the camera -- without the mask he had just dramatically taken off -- and seemed to argue his getting sick was a necessary risk to show he was a strong leader. (Cathey, 10/6)
AP: Trump's Faulty Claims On Flu And Coronavirus
President Donald Trump is back to making false comparisons between COVID-19 and the flu, contradicting science and even himself. TRUMP: “Flu season is coming up! Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu. Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!” — tweet Tuesday. THE FACTS: First, he’s overstating the U.S. death toll from the seasonal flu. The flu has killed 12,000 to 61,000 Americans annually since 2010, not 100,000, a benchmark rarely reached in U.S. history. (Woodward, 10/6)
Also —
The Wall Street Journal: Facebook Removes Trump’s Post About Covid-19, Citing Misinformation Rules
Facebook Inc. said it took down a post by President Trump playing down the deadliness Covid-19 Tuesday because it contained misinformation about the dangers of the coronavirus. The social-media giant said its decision Tuesday was based on its policy against users spreading information deemed both wrong and harmful. Facebook said it makes determinations based on guidance from public-health authorities including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization. (Horwitz, 10/6)
WBUR: Domestic Workers React With Anger After Trump Says 'Don't Be Afraid Of Covid'
There are more than 2 million domestic workers like Norma in the U.S. – people who work in private homes cleaning and taking care of children, older adults and people with disabilities, according to the Economic Policy Institute. The vast majority of these workers are women, and over half are women of color. (Peñaloza, 10/6)
