Trump raises prospect that China deliberately caused Covid-19 outbreak
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US President Donald Trump raised the prospect that China deliberately caused the Covid-19 outbreak that’s killed over 38,000 Americans and said there should be consequences if the country is found to be “knowingly responsible.”
“Let’s see what happens with their investigation. But we’re doing investigations also,” Trump said at a White House news conference on Saturday. “If it was a mistake, a mistake is a mistake. But if they were knowingly responsible, yeah, then there should be consequences.”
Trump has offered no evidence that the Chinese were responsible for the pandemic, but did say that a U.S. investigation into the outbreak is ongoing.
Trump also voiced doubts on the death rate being reported by Chinese officials. At one point, when Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, was presenting charts comparing the U.S. mortality rate to that of other countries, Trump interrupted.
“Does anybody really believe this number?” Trump said, referring to China’s reported mortality rate of 0.33 per 100,000 people. Birx responded that she had included China on the chart to show how “unrealistic” those numbers were. The U.S. mortality rate is 11.24 per 100,000, which Birx said is half to a third of other countries. Belgium led the world with 45.2 fatalities per 100,000, followed by Spain with 42.81, and then Italy with 37.64.
As Birx moved to the next slide, Trump asked her to go back to the mortality chart, where he then expressed incredulity about Iran’s reported mortality of 6.06 out of 100,000.
“The United States has produced dramatically better health outcomes than any other country, with the possible exception of Germany,” Trump had said at the start of the briefing.
