Claim: There’s An Approved Treatment For Covid
The president has promoted an anti-malaria drug as an approved treatment for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
“The hydroxychloroquine and the Z-pack, I think, as a combination, probably, it’s looking very, very good,” Trump said during a news briefing March 23. He called the pair of medicines a “drug that got approved in record-setting time.”
There’s some early evidence that chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine decades-old drugs used to prevent malaria and treat rheumatic diseases might help patients fight off the virus, particularly when paired with the antibiotic azithromycin, commonly known as a Z-Pack.
But it’s not an “approved” treatment for the coronavirus, according to the Food and Drug Administration, or even a fully vetted option, according to one of Trump’s top scientists.
“The information that you’re referring to specifically is anecdotal. It was not done in a controlled clinical trial. So, you really can’t make any definitive statement about it,” the nation’s leading infectious diseases expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said during the same news conference.
Dr. Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the FDA, also said in March that the agency wants “a large, pragmatic clinical trial” to see whether the drug “actually benefits patients.”
A nationwide trial to determine whether hydroxychloroquine can prevent the disease in exposed persons is underway, NPR reported March 31.
How Did We Get Here
On 28 January President Trump issued an executive order blocking refugees and travellers with passports from seven Muslim-majority countries.
The ban was cruel, inhumane, and violated international law.
With the stroke of a pen, the President banned Syrian refugees from the USA indefinitely and prevented anyone from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the USA for 90 days.
He also halted the US refugee resettlement programme for 120 days, and indicated that when this restarts the US will slash the maximum number of refugees it will receive from 110,000 to 50,000.
These countries all have one thing in common: most people seeking asylum from these countries are trying to escape serious human rights abuses like torture and mass murder. For most, returning home is not a choice.
Claim: Closing The Border To Chinese Nationals Early Saved Lives Trump Gets Credit For Travel Ban But Effectiveness Is Hard To Measure
Something we did very well is, when we stopped the inflow from China at a very early level, that was a good thing to do, a great thing to do. We would have had thousands and thousands of more deaths. And we also stopped the inflow from Europe at a very early level, Trump said on March 29. We had never done anything like it, where we closed our borders to a country like that.
The U.S. barred entry by foreigners who had travelled in China in the past two weeks, with some exceptions, starting on February 2. But it’s hard to know the impact of one decision amid a rolling, nationwide response on mortality.
One expert, Dr. Irwin Redlener, the director of the Columbia University National Center for Disaster Preparedness and a public health analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, called the travel bans a mixed bag” in terms of effectiveness.
Stopping travel from China was coupled with inconsistent messaging from the White House on the potential severity of the threat. On Jan. 30, Trump said the U.S. has “very little problem,” and through February, Trump was comparing the coronavirus to a flu.
There was value in closing the border to Chinese nationals coming to the U.S. in the early weeks of this situation. Closing the borders to Europeans later? It was too late to make much difference. Its a mixed bag, he told NBC News.
Don’t Miss: How Much Did Trump Cut From Cdc
Claim: The Us Implemented A Travel Ban Way Ahead Of Anybody Else This Is False
On April 1, Trump told reporters that the United States had banned “dangerous foreign travel that threatens the health of our people and we did so early, far earlier than anyone would have thought, and way ahead of anybody else.”
The U.S. implemented a restriction on foreign travelers who had been in China in the past two weeks, at 5 p.m. Feb. 2. Italy had already done so by Jan. 31 and North Korea had banned all foreign tourists Jan. 22.
The Us Will Turn Away Asylum Seekers On The Us
Trump said hes not going to close the US-Mexico border yet, but he will be prohibiting the entry of asylum seekers and those who try to cross without authorization at the southern border, likely later on Wednesday. He said he would invoke a provision in federal immigration law that allows the US to suspend travel from any country that poses serious danger of the introduction of communicable disease.
To an extent, most asylum seekers were already prevented from entering the US through various policies Trump had enacted, but this would give the administration another tool to turn them away.
Since February 2016, the Trump administrations policies at the border have forced migrants to wait in Mexico for months at a time. US Customs and Border Protection officials have been limiting the number of asylum seekers they process at ports of entry each day, making migrants wait for their turn in Mexico, where migrant shelters are at capacity.
Even after migrants are processed, they are quickly sent back to Mexico under the Trump administrations Remain in Mexico policy, officially known as the Migrant Protection Protocols . More than 60,000 migrants have been sent back to await decisions on their US asylum applications.
Trump could now effectively shut the door on asylum seekers entirely on account of the coronavirus pandemic a move that would likely face legal challenges.
You May Like: How To Join Students For Trump
Coronavirus: Trump Suspends Travel From Europe To Us
US President Donald Trump has announced sweeping travel restrictions on 26 European countries in a bid to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
The ban applies to travellers from countries which are members of the Schengen border-free travel area.
The UK, Ireland and other non-Schengen countries are unaffected. US citizens are also exempt.
The EU condemned the measures, which it said were taken “unilaterally and without consultation”.
The new rules go into effect on Friday at midnight EDT and mark a major escalation from the US president, who has been accused of inaction over the coronavirus.
There are 1,135 confirmed cases of the virus across the US, with 38 deaths so far.
following Mr Trump’s announcement. At the start of US trading, shares plunged triggering an automatic temporary suspension in trading aimed at curbing panicky selling.
- TRAVEL PLANS: What are your rights?
In other developments:
Restrictions By The Obama Administration
Trump’s press secretarySean Spicer cited these existing restrictions as evidence that the executive order was based on outstanding policies saying that the seven targeted countries were “put first and foremost” by the Obama administration. Fact-checkers at PolitiFact.com, The New York Times, and The Washington Post said the Obama restrictions cannot be compared to this executive order because they were in response to a credible threat and were not a blanket ban on all individuals from those countries, and concluded that the Trump administration’s statements about the Obama administration were misleading and false.
Read Also: What Time Is Trumps Speech On Cpac
The Department Of Housing And Urban Development Will Suspend Some Foreclosures And Evictions
The social distancing and quarantines meant to fight the virus are proving devastating to entire industries, including restaurants and hospitality, and could leave workers in those fields and hourly workers unable to pay their bills.
To alleviate the financial burden on homeowners affected by the virus, Trump said that the federal government is suspending foreclosures and evictions until the end of April.
It wasnt immediately clear who would be covered by the suspension, though it will reportedly apply only to homeowners with mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration, which underwrites affordable home loans issued by private lenders. The Federal Housing Finance Agency separately announced on Wednesday that it would similarly suspend foreclosures and evictions for those with mortgages underwritten by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
Impact On Us Industry
Google called its traveling employees back to the U.S. in case the order prevented them from returning. About 100 of the company’s employees were thought to be affected by the order. Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in a letter to his staff that “it’s painful to see the personal cost of this executive order on our colleagues. We’ve always made our view on immigration issues known publicly and will continue to do so.”, citing disruption in travel for its employees, and Expedia Inc., citing impact to its customers and refund costs, filed declarations in support of the states of Washington and Minnesota in their case against the executive order, State of Washington v. Trump.
However, Committee for Economic Development CEO Steve Odland and several other executives and analysts commented that the order will not lead to significant changes in IT hiring practices among US companies, since the countries affected are not the primary source of foreign talent. According to the Hill “a cross-section of legal experts and travel advocates” say that the order “could have a chilling effect on U.S. tourism, global business and enrollment in American universities”.
Don’t Miss: When Did Trump Get Impeached
Claim: The Obama Administration Ignored Swine Flu That’s False
Take a look at the swine flu. It was a disaster, 17,000 people died, the other administrationits like they didnt even know it was here, Trump claimed during an April 6 news conference.
Swine flu killed an estimated 12,469 people in the U.S. during the Obama administration. The first case was detected on April 15, 2009. Within two weeks, according to archived CDC records, the federal government had declared a public health emergency, begun work on a vaccine, started releasing PPE from the federal stockpile and purchasing antivirals, and had rolled out a test.
Claim: Trump Says He Inherited A Broken Test For The Virus This Is False
“We inherited a broken test,” Trump said on March 30 on Fox News.
Later in the day, he complained that his administration wasn’t getting enough credit for overcoming what he claimed was a “broken testing system” in order to get a coronavirus test up and running.
You should be saying congratulations to the men and women who have done this job, who have inherited a broken testing system, and who have made it great, he said during the March 30 Rose Garden news conference.
Trump’s claims come amid broad criticism that the U.S. was slow to begin testing its residents for coronavirus, hurting early efforts to contain the outbreak. But its impossible for Trump to have inherited a broken testing system for COVID-19. The novel coronavirus did not exist until late last year, when researchers believe it was transmitted from an animal to a human for the first time.
And there’s little evidence that the actions past administrations hamstrung the Trump administration here, particularly since no administration had faced a pandemic of this nature.
Redlener said the presidents claim was nonsense.
Theres nothing that he inherited that could have hamstrung them, said Redlener, adding that virus test development is pretty commonplace.
Even if there was, the World Health Organization and Germany and other places offered us testing equipment and materials, which we decided not to take,” he said.
Read Also: What Does Trump Impeachment Mean
A Timeline Of The Trump Administrations Coronavirus Actions
Travel restrictions, lack of tests, contradicting claims: These are some of the major actions by the US president.
The administration of United States President Donald Trump has faced its greatest challenge in 2020: The coronavirus pandemic and the disease it causes, COVID-19.
Since emerging in China at the end of 2019, the virus has spread all over the world. The US now leads the globe in the pandemics spread, with almost 830,000 cases and 46,000 deaths as of April 21.
The administrations response has been widespread, ranging from downplaying the crisis to enormous bailouts. It has also been the subject of much criticism, with Trump taking to his daily briefings to defend his response, often making contradictory claims.
Here is a timeline of key actions taken by the Trump administration related to its response to the virus within the US:
Trump Is Invoking The Defense Production Act To Produce Key Medical Supplies
Trump said that he is invoking the Defense Production Act, a wartime law that would allow the government to harness the private sector to produce medical equipment necessary to combat the spread of coronavirus.
The government will be targeting production of medical masks, including N-95 masks, that can help protect health personnel from contracting the virus, as well as ventilators to help patients with acute symptoms breathe. The government has ordered millions of masks, but the US will need millions more, Trump said.
The US currently has more than 10,000 ventilators, and the Pentagon has offered up some of their own, but the administration anticipates needing thousands more.
We have tremendous numbers of ventilators, but theres never been an instance like this where no matter what you have, its never enough, he said. This is a very unforeseen thing.
Read Also: Is Donald Trump The Antichrist
Doctors Will Be Allowed To Practice Across State Borders
Medical professionals can now practice across state lines in order to help hospitals in hotspots of transmission to increase their capacity, Trump announced.
A recent analysis by researchers at the Imperial College London found that even strict efforts to delay the spread of the virus including case isolation, home quarantine, and social distancing would still result in an 8-fold higher peak demand on critical care beds over and above the available surge capacity in … the US.
The government has already asked Americans to delay elective medical procedures to free up health care resources, including personnel and equipment, and to protect patients from contracting the virus in medical facilities.
Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the US was already facing an imminent shortage of doctors: The Association of American Medical Colleges estimates that it could reach 46,900 to 121,900 physicians by 2032. Rural areas, where doctors are already in short supply, could be particularly hard hit.
Trump Campaign And Administration Statements Before The Order’s Signing
Donald Trump became the U.S. president on January 20, 2017. He has long claimed that terrorists are using the U.S. refugee resettlement program to enter the country. As a candidate Trump’s “Contract with the American Voter” pledged to suspend immigration from “terror-prone regions”. Trump-administration officials then described the executive order as fulfilling this campaign promise. Speaking of Trump’s agenda as implemented through executive orders and the judicial appointment process, White House chief strategist Steve Bannon stated: “If you want to see the Trump agenda it’s very simple. It was all in the speeches. He’s laid out an agenda with those speeches, with the promises he made, and job every day is to just to execute on that. He’s maniacally focused on that.”
During his initial election campaign Trump had proposed a temporary, conditional, and “total and complete” ban on Muslims entering the United States. His proposal was met by opposition by U.S. politicians including Mike Pence and James Mattis.
Also Check: Why Is Trump So Orange
