Top US health officials clash with Trump over coronavirus death toll

Fauci clashes with Trump over covid figures

Credit: Reuters

Two of America’s top health officials have clashed with Donald Trump over the number of coronavirus deaths in the US.

According to the latest figures, Covid-19 has claimed more than 358,000 lives with the number of cases surging past 20 million.

However, Mr Trump disputed his own administration’s official figures on Twitter.

‘The number of cases and deaths of the China Virus is far exaggerated in the United States because of the @CDCgov´s ridiculous method of determination compared to other countries, many of whom report, purposely, very inaccurately and low,” he wrote.

Something how Dr. Fauci is revered by the LameStream Media as such a great professional, having done, they say, such an incredible job, yet he works for me and the Trump Administration, and I am in no way given any credit for my work. Gee, could this just be more Fake News?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2021

Mr Trump then launched a further attack on Mr Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

‘Something how Dr. Fauci is revered by the LameStream Media as such a great professional, having done, they say, such an incredible job, yet he works for me and the Trump Administration, and I am in no way given any credit for my work. Gee, could this just be more Fake News?”

Mr Trump has repeatedly attacked Dr Fauci, even retweeting calls for him to be sacked.

Dr Fauci, who has accepted an offer to work for the incoming Biden administration, was defiant on Sunday.

"To have 300,000 cases in a given day, and between two and 3,000 deaths a day is just terrible,” he said on ABC’s This Week.

US Surgeon General Jerome Adams defends official covid figures

Credit: Cheriss May/Reuters

"There’s no running away from the numbers. The deaths are real deaths,” he added.

He added: “All you need to do is go out into the trenches. Go to the hospitals and see what the health care workers are dealing with. 

“They are under very stressful situations in many areas of the country. The hospital beds are stretched, people are running out of beds, running out of trained personnel who are exhausted.”

Jerome Adams, the US Surgeon General, disputed the president’s assertion that the CDC’s figures were wrong.

"From a public health perspective, I have no reason to doubt those numbers," he said on CNN.

The clash comes with the Trump administration under further attack over its response to the pandemic, particularly over the pace of distributing a vaccine under its much-vaunted “Operation Warp Speed” programme.

Having pledged to vaccinate 20 million Americans by the end of last year, the latest figures showed that, in fact, just over two million people had been inoculated.

In an attempt to expand the roll-out of the vaccine, the Trump administration is in talks with Moderna, one of the manufacturers, over halving the recommended dose to make it go further.

Operation Warp Speed chief adviser Moncef Slaoui  told CBS Face the Nation that there was evidence that two half doses gave identical protection to people between 19 and 55.