One of
Donald Trump’s fiercest defenders urged the president on Thursday to pay attention to scientific facts instead of spit-balling a
coronavirus death rate and insisting that up to “
hundreds of thousands” of Americans could catch the virus with little ill effect and
still go to work.
“I don’t know what he was talking about,” Sen.
Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters after Trump explained to
Sean Hannity on
Fox News that he had a “hunch” the death rate for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, is less than 1%. The World Health Organization has reported that the
death rate is 3.4%.
“I would encourage the president, if he’s going to report things, to make sure that the science is behind what he says,” Graham added, noting: “I listen to the scientists when it comes to the numbers.”
Last week, Trump boasted at a press conference that COVID-19 cases in the U.S. would “within a couple of days ... be down to close to zero.” He added: “That’s a pretty good job we’ve done.”
As of Thursday evening, the U.S. had at least 210 cases and 12 deaths.