Fact check: Trump spends his weekend lying about the virus and his health

Impatient to return to the campaign trail, Donald Trump dubiously claimed he’s fully recovered and immune from COVID-19, hailed a cure that isn’t so, and declared the coronavirus is “disappearing” even as cases spiked.

The comments over the weekend capped a week in which Trump hurried to leave his convalescence behind and get on with the campaign for the Nov. 3 election.

A look at the claims and reality:

CORONAVIRUS

TRUMP: “I’m immune. … It could be a lifetime.” — interview Sunday on Fox News.

TRUMP: “A total and complete sign off from White House Doctors yesterday. That means I can’t get it (immune), and can’t give it.” — tweet Sunday.

THE FACTS: That’s far from certain, and Twitter later flagged his tweet with a fact-check warning.

Some medical experts have been skeptical that Trump could be declared free of the risk of transmitting the virus so early in the course of his illness. Nor can he be completely assured of immunity following his illness.

Trump was referring to a memo released Saturday by the White House in which Navy Cmdr. Dr. Sean Conley said Trump met the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria for safely discontinuing isolation and that by “currently recognized standards” he was no longer considered a transmission risk. The memo did not declare Trump had tested negative for the virus.

Dr. Albert Ko, an infectious disease specialist and department chairman at the Yale School of Public Health, said the White House appeared to be following CDC guidelines for when it is appropriate to end isolation after mild to moderate cases of COVID-19.

But Ko cautioned that those who have had severe cases of the diseases should isolate for 20 days, not just 10 days as Trump has done. He noted that Trump was treated with the steroid dexamethasone, which is normally reserved for patients with severe COVID-19.

Dr. Marc Lipsitch, an infectious disease expert at the Harvard School of Public Health, said the doctor’s letter does not provide enough information to be confident that Trump can no longer infect others. He said Trump’s use of steroids could prolong viral shedding, so the CDC’s 10-day standard may not be enough.

As to immunity, while there’s evidence that reinfection is unlikely for at least three months even for those with a mild case of COVID-19, very few diseases leave people completely immune for life. Antibodies are only one piece of the body’s defenses, and they naturally wane over time.

“Certainly it’s presumptuous to say it’s a lifetime,” Ko said.

___

TRUMP, on the pandemic: “It’s going to disappear; it is disappearing.” — remarks Saturday.

THE FACTS: There is no sign the virus is “disappearing,” or “rounding a corner” as he sometimes puts it, despite Trump’s repeated assertions since first making the claim in February, over 214,000 deaths ago. And it’s certainly not what his top health advisers say.

“I’m sorry but I have to disagree with that,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious diseases expert, said last month, when the U.S. was seeing 40,000 cases a day. The U.S. is now seeing over 57,000 new cases daily, with spikes in numerous states.

Trump made the claim as he and several of his aides seek to recover from the coronavirus following a potential superspreader event last month where Trump announced his nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. More than two dozen people in attendance that day have since contracted the virus. Trump now plans to return to the campaign trail Monday, and officials have signaled Trump’s intention to travel nearly every day for the rest of the campaign.

Fauci has cautioned that people should not underestimate the pandemic and they will “need to hunker down and get through this fall and winter because it’s not going to be easy.” He and other health experts, such as Dr. Robert Redfield of the CDC, have warned of a potentially bad fall because of dual threats of the coronavirus and the flu season.

___

TRUMP, on those who get COVID-19. “Now what happens is you get better. That’s what happens, you get better.” — to Fox Business on Thursday.

THE FACTS: As a blanket assurance, that is obviously false. Most people get better. But more than 1 million people worldwide have died from the disease, more than 214,000 of them in the U.S. The disease also may leave many people with long-term harm that is not fully understood.

Trump’s doctor, Dr. Sean Conley, says Trump was showing no evidence of his illness progressing or adverse reactions to the aggressive course of therapy prescribed by his doctors. That doesn’t mean he is over it.

___

TRUMP, on the experimental antibodies he was administered: “We have a cure. … I can tell you, it’s a cure and I’m talking to you today because of it.” — speaking to Rush Limbaugh’s radio show by phone Friday.

THE FACTS: We don’t have a cure. His statement is premature at best and may raise false hope. And his present condition cannot be pinned on a particular medicine in the combination of drugs he has been given.

Antibody drugs like the one Trump was given are among the most promising therapies being tested for treating and preventing coronavirus infections. But the medicines are still in testing; their safety and effectiveness are not yet known.

Trump was among fewer than 10 people who were able to access the Regeneron Pharmaceuticals drug without having to enroll in a study. Eli Lilly and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. are both asking the U.S. government to allow emergency use of their antibody drugs, which aim to help the immune system clear the virus.

Trump has routinely made too much of promising developments in the pandemic and given weight to bogus theories about how to prevent and treat the disease while dismissing the importance of true preventives such as wearing a mask and staying away from groups of people.

___

HEALTH CARE

TRUMP, on Democratic criticism that he has no plan to protect people with preexisting conditions: “They know that’s false. … We are going to protect people with preexisting conditions, and they’re going to pay a lot less money for the new health care.” — interview Sunday on Fox News.

THE FACTS: No, there is no clear plan. People with preexisting conditions are already protected by the Obama-era Affordable Care Act, and if the Trump administration succeeds in persuading the Supreme Court to overturn it, those protections will be in jeopardy.

Trump has signed an executive order declaring it the policy of the U.S. government to protect people with preexisting conditions, but he would have to go back to Congress to work out legislation to replace those Obamacare provisions.

Various Republican approaches offered in 2017 would have undermined the protections in the ACA, and Trump has not offered details of how his plan would work. Although Trump has been in office nearly four years, he has yet to roll out the comprehensive health care proposal he once promised.

___

ECONOMY

TRUMP: “The country is doing well. We’re looking like a super V.” — Fox interview Sunday.

THE FACTS: Not so.

It’s too soon to know the shape of the recovery — things are still fragile.

The Trump administration could point to the stock market and argue a rebound that resembles a “V.” But the monthly job gains have started to slow in a way that suggests the recovery is tapering off without additional government aid. The poorest Americans have yet to return to work in substantial numbers, while the affluent are doing better. That has prompted some economists to say the U.S. is actually in a “K-shaped” recovery with the paths diverging between the richest and the poorest.

What is clear is that nearly $3 trillion in government aid cushioned the blow from the recession. Roughly two-thirds of Americans have described their personal finances as good in polling by AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs, as direct checks and expanded jobless aid helped. But those benefits have run out, causing doubts about the trajectory of the economy.

___