Shortly after confirmation of the first coronavirus death in the US, Donald Trump rebuffed criticism for using the word “hoax” in describing the outbreak. The president also touted his administration’s coronavirus response as “the most aggressive action in modern history”.
Trump made his startling “hoax” claim at a rally on Friday in North Charleston, South Carolina, the state which held a Democratic primary on Saturday.
“The Democrats are politicising the coronavirus,” Trump said. “They’re politicising it. One of my people came up to me and said: ‘Mr President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia.’ That did not work out too well. They could not do it. They tried the impeachment hoax.
“This is their new hoax.”
On Saturday, Washington state officials confirmed that a Seattle-area man in his 50s had died. Governor Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency.
The patient, who was chronically ill, went to a Kirkland hospital with “serious respiratory issues”, officials said at a press conference, adding that the man was tested for the virus on Thursday night.
Officials also announced two additional presumptive positive cases, both associated with a nursing home in the same city. A woman in her 40s who worked at the home was in satisfactory condition, while a woman in her 70s who was a resident was in serious condition.
The announcement came a day after state officials confirmed two other cases, including a high-school student in the town of Mill Creek with no history of international travel and no known interactions with people infected. The other was a woman in the Seattle area in her 50s who recently returned from South Korea.
According to the latest World Health Organization (WHO) report, 83,652 cases of coronavirus and nearly 2,800 deaths have been reported worldwide. The vast majority of cases are in China but the virus has caused havoc with stock markets and international travel, sports and business.
Before news of the Washington death, US authorities reported three new cases in the Pacific north-west, bringing the national total to around 65.
At the White House, confirmation of the Seattle death met with confusion. During a press conference, Trump called the person who died “a wonderful woman, a medically high-risk patient in her late 50s”.
Trump was asked if he regretted using “hoax” now someone had died. His use of the word referred to “the action [Democrats] tried to take to try to pin this on somebody because we’ve done such a good job”, he said.
“The hoax is on them. I’m not talking about what’s happening here,” Trump added, also saying “I don’t like it when they are criticising [federal health officials], and that’s the hoax.”
Trump was also asked if his use of “hoax” could deter people from taking cautionary steps against the coronavirus. He said it would not.
Trump also said he would meet pharmaceutical companies on Monday to discuss expedited vaccine development.
Vice-president Mike Pence, heading the coronavirus task force, described four new initiatives, including expanding the federal ban on travel from Iran. Pence said US officials would also increase to “the highest level” a warning to Americans not to visit areas of Italy and South Korea and said the state department would work with these countries to screen individuals.
The vice-president also said the administration had contracted with 3M to produce an additional 35 million face masks per month.
Trump’s comments about a hoax were condemned by Democrats seeking the nomination to face him in the presidential election.
“For him to … start talking about being a hoax is absolutely dangerous,” Biden said in Greenville, South Carolina, on Saturday. “It’s just not a decent way to act.”
The former vice-president added: “Some of the stuff he says is so bizarre that you can laugh at it. It just so diminishes the faith that people around the world have in the United States.
“Look, this is a serious, serious, serious problem. It’s able to be solved, but it requires us to be absolutely levelheaded and let the scientists have the lead in all of this. But for [Trump] to … start talking about being a hoax is absolutely dangerous. It’s just not a decent way to act.”
Other candidates weighed in. Sanders asked why Trump “repeatedly think[s] that scientific facts are hoaxes” and said “the most dangerous president in the modern history of our country” was “putting our people’s lives at risk”.
Pete Buttigieg told NBC News: “It’s critically important that the administration and the White House handle this in a way that’s based on science and not on politics.” American lives, he added, “depend on the wisdom and the judgement of the president at a time like this”.
Amid attacks over budget cuts to epidemic defences as his administration asked Congress for funding to address coronavirus, Trump’s decision to put Pence in charge of US response has also met with criticism.
Republicans and supporters of Trump have fired back, accusing the president’s opponents and the media of seeking political gain. On Friday Donald Trump Jr told Fox News Democrats had reached a “new level of sickness” and wanted to see coronavirus kill “millions of people”.
That night, Trump said: “We are doing everything in our power to keep the infection and those carrying the infection from entering the country. We have no choice.” He also sought without offering evidence to tie coronavirus cases in the US to the southern border, the focus of his hardline immigration policy.
“Whether it’s the virus that we’re talking about,” Trump said, “or the many other public health threats, the Democrat policy of open borders is a direct threat to the health and wellbeing of all Americans.”
At the White House on Saturday, Trump said the administration was not seriously considering closing the border with Mexico.