$2,000 PRICE TAG

Trump Baselessly Claims Doctors ‘Get More Money’ From COVID-19 Deaths

Continuing his attacks on frontline healthcare workers, the president claimed doctors lie to inflate the number of deaths because it earns them “like $2,000 more.”

As the number of COVID-19 infections in the U.S. topped 9 million on Friday, President Trump again accused doctors of profiting off the pandemic, telling supporters physicians “get more money” from coronavirus deaths. Speaking at a rally in Michigan, the president claimed, contrary to existing evidence, that doctors in the U.S. are fabricating causes of death amid the pandemic. “Our doctors get more money if someone dies from COVID. You know that, right?” Trump said. “So what they do is, they say, ‘I’m sorry, but, you know, everybody dies of Covid,’” he claimed. “But in Germany and other places, if you have a heart attack, or you have cancer, you’re terminally ill, you catch COVID, they say you died of cancer, you died of heart attack. With us, when in doubt, choose COVID.” He went on to bizarrely claim that doctors get “like $2,000 more” for coronavirus deaths, again citing no evidence.

The president, who has made similar remarks about doctors recently and scoffed at the advice of infectious disease experts throughout the pandemic, was promptly reprimanded by the American Medical Association following his remarks on Friday. “Rather than attacking us and lobbing baseless charges at physicians, our leaders should be following the science and urging adherence to the public health steps we know work—wearing a mask, washing hands and practicing physical distancing,” AMA president Susan Bailey said.