Speaking during the Salute to America festivities on the Fourth of July, Trump made this claim about COVID-19:
There were no test for a new virus, but now we have tested almost 40 million people. By so doing, we show cases, 99% of which are totally harmless, results that no other country can show because no other country has testing that we have, not in terms of the numbers or in terms of the quality.
Well, for starters there have been just over 36 million tests (36,255,888) as of this writing and many people test more than once especially those who test positive. That's a far cry from 40 million people being tested.
But more egregious is Trump's claim that 99% of COVID-19 cases are "totally harmless." Of the nearly 2.8 million Americans (2,789,678) who have tested positive for COVID-19 nearly 130,000 have died (129,305). That's a fatality rate of 4.6%.
Now some might say well that's leaves 95.5% who survive COVID-19. But just because one survives COVID-19 doesn't mean it is "totally harmless." One of the complications is COVID fibrosis (a.k.a. post-acute respiratory distress syndrome) which is permanent lung damage and can affect people even in their 20's and require a lung transplant.
While it is difficult to determine how many COVID survivors will have COVID fibrosis it is very clear that Trump's claim that COVID-19 is 99% totally harmless is an outright lie and does a disservice to both the dead and the living.
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