White House Spox: Statement Claiming Trump Ended the Pandemic Was ‘Poorly Worded’
NOT OVER
Alyssa Farah, the White House communications director, admitted that a Tuesday press release crediting President Trump with “ending the COVID-19 pandemic” was “poorly worded.” “The intent was to say that it is our goal to end the virus,” Farah said. “But what I would say is this: because of the President’s leadership, we are rounding the corner on the virus.” She insisted that the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy release was intended to recognize medical professionals combatting the virus. “We’re certainly not getting ahead of it, we’re still in the midst of the pandemic,” Farah said. “We do say we’re turning the corner and what we mean by that is, we’re rushing therapeutics, we’re in the best place to treat the virus that we’ve ever been in. And by end of year we expect that we’ll have the vaccine, at which point we will defeat the virus.”
According to an analysis by CNBC using data from Johns Hopkins University, the average number of daily new coronavirus cases has hit a staggering 71,832, a 20 percent increase compared to just last week. Experts told CNBC that this surge has put the country at a “critical point.”