This is a simple timeline of Donald Trump’s quotes imposed over the number of coronavirus cases in the US. This is not meant to serve as a comprehensive analysis of the government’s position. Data is gathered from press conferences and Twitter.
It is very telling and visually striking that after downplaying the coronavirus risks for weeks, Trump claimed he “always knew” the situation.
Here are several other quotes we did not add to the visualization to avoid clutter:
- “It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.” — January 22, 2020.
- “I think the virus is going to be — it’s going to be fine.” — February 10, 2020.
- “Because of all we’ve done, the risk to the American people remains very low. … When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero. That’s a pretty good job we’ve done.” — February 26, 2020.
- “It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.” — February 28, 2020.
- “This is their new hoax.” — February 28, 2020
- “So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!” — March 9, 2020.
- “This is a very contagious virus. It’s incredible. But it’s something that we have tremendous control over.” — March 15, 2020.
- “If you’re talking about the virus, no, that’s not under control for any place in the world.” — March 16, 2020.
- “I always treated the Chinese Virus very seriously, and have done a very good job from the beginning” — March 18, 2020.
- “No, I’ve always viewed it as serious, there was no difference yesterday from days before. I feel the tone is similar but some people said it wasn’t.” — March 18, 2020.
We’ll do our best to keep this visualization updated but in truth, we have limited manpower and there are far more important things to focus on now.
Nevertheless, it is important the decisionmakers be held accountable for their statements and their handling of this crisis, which seems to be one of the biggest challenges modern society has had to face.
