By Cathy Burke(NEWSMAX)
President Donald Trump on Friday declared the United States is “rounding the turn” on the COVID-19 pandemic, touting progress on both a vaccine and an economic recovery, The Hill reported.
At a news conference, Trump said the new jobs report showed the nation added 1.4 million jobs in August and the unemployment rate dropped to 8.4%, calling the recovery “unprecedented” and saying it was taking the shape of a “super V.”
“We’re really rounding the turn. The vaccines are coming. The therapeutics have already come but they’re continuing to come,” Trump said, The Hill reported.
Later pressed on his optimism about the virus in the face of a University of Washington model showing the United States would record more than 410,000 deaths due to COVID-19 by January 2021, Trump said: “If I didn’t close up — instead of the number you mentioned or whatever number it may be, about 180,000 — we would have perhaps 1.5 or 2 million deaths right now if I went in a different direction.
“If we cut our testing in half, we would probably have about half the number of cases,” he added.
He also suggested the nation’s approach to the virus would appear better if in his count he “took out” New York, which was the epicenter of the pandemic in March and April.
Health officials like Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Robert Redfield have warned of the possibility of a dire public health situation in the fall if Americans don’t follow health guidelines as the flu season begins.
