Trump is 'confusing' public on threat of coronavirus, experts warn - Business Insider

Or he can give a sense of false assurance like saying China and the US have [coronavirus] totally under control," Lawrence Gostin, a global health law professor at Georgetown University who has advised the World Health Organization on pandemic preparedness, told Insider."Overall, his reputation for telling untruths and exaggerating truths is very harmful when he has to advise a frightened public during a major outbreak," Gostin added.Gostin said there have already been "highly conflicting messages from the Trump administration," with the president stating that coronavirus was "under control" but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stating that it's likely to "spread widely" in the US. "Low Ratings Fake News MSDNC (Comcast) & @CNN are doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible," Trump tweeted.Trump's focus on the stock market in relation to coronavirus is a "huge concern," Konyndyk said.The president is sending "inaccurate risk-messaging" by telling people "this is not a big deal...and he's doing that to keep the markets calm," he added. That could hugely backfire on him," Konyndyk said.Given the consensus on the risk to the US and the world at large, public health experts are not encouraged by the Trump administration's approach to coronavirus so far, particularly in terms of the president's attempts to downplay its potential severity.