Thread by @DomenicoNPR

“The president never downplayed the virus” — Trump’s press secretary.

Let’s recap:
1/ Feb. 10: “Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away. hope that’s true. But we’re doing great in our country.”

2/ Feb. 11: “In our country, we only have, basically, 12 cases and most of those people are recovering and some cases fully recovered. So it’s actually less.”

3/ Feb. 24: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA.”

4/ Feb. 25: Nancy Messonnier, director of CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases for ringing alarms about the virus. Trump threatens, according to the @WSJ to fire her

5/ Feb. 26: “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.”

6/ Feb. 28: “They [Democrats] tried the impeachment hoax. That was on a perfect conversation. They tried anything, they tried it over and over. … And this is their new hoax.”

7/ March 5: “Gallup just gave us the highest rating ever for the way we are handling the CoronaVirus situation. The April 2009-10 Swine Flu, where nearly 13,000 people died in the U.S., was poorly handled.”

8/ March 10: “This was unexpected. … And it hit the world. And we’re prepared, and we’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.”

9/ March 11: “The vast majority of Americans, the risk is very, very low.”

10/ March 16: “If everyone makes … these critical changes & sacrifices now, we will rally together as one nation & we will defeat the virus. And we’re going to have a big celebration all together. W/ several weeks of focused action, we can turn the corner and turn it quickly.”

11/ March 17: “We’re getting rid of this virus. That’s what we’re doing. That’s the best thing we can do. By the way, for the markets, for everything — it’s very simple, very simple solution. We want to get rid of it.”

12/ March 22: “WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF. AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!”

13/ March 23: “America will again, and soon, be open for business — very soon — a lot sooner than three or four months that somebody was suggesting. A lot sooner. We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself. We’re not going to let the cure be worse than the problem.”

14/ March 24: “Easter is a very special day for me. And I see it sort of in that timeline that I’m thinking about. And I say, wouldn’t it be great to have all of the churches full?”

15/ March 25: “Nobody could have ever seen something like this coming.”

16/ April 3 (on masks): “It’s going to be, really, a voluntary thing. You can do it. You don’t have to do it. I’m choosing not to do it, but some people may want to do it, and that’s OK. It may be good. Probably will. They’re making a recommendation. It’s only a recommendation.”

17/ April 4: “We went this extra period of time. But I’ve said it from the beginning: The cure cannot be worse than the problem itself.”

18/ April 7: “You have to understand, I’m a cheerleader for this country. I don’t want to create havoc and shock and everything else.”

19/ April 8: “FLATTENING OF THE CURVE!”

20/ April 15: “We think some of the states can actually open up before the deadline of May 1. And I think that that will be a very exciting time indeed.”

That’s just through mid-April. Read on here to see the case and death count as each of these statements was made. Cc: @tamarakeithNPR npr.org/2020/04/21/837…