Trump accuses doctors of faking coronavirus death count for money

He gave the example of someone with a terminal illness getting COVID-19, whose death is then written off as due to the virus.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
US President Donald Trump takes off his face mask as he comes out on a White House balcony to speak to supporters gathered on the South Lawn for a campaign rally at the White House. October 10, 2020. (photo credit: REUTERS//TOM BRENNER)
US President Donald Trump takes off his face mask as he comes out on a White House balcony to speak to supporters gathered on the South Lawn for a campaign rally at the White House. October 10, 2020.
(photo credit: REUTERS//TOM BRENNER)
US President Donald Trump attacked US doctors in a speech Saturday night, accusing them of fabricating the coronavirus death toll for money.
He gave the example of someone with a terminal illness getting COVID-19, whose death is then written off as due to the virus.
"We report them, and doctors get more money, and hospitals get more money," he said.
"Some countries, they report differently. If somebody is sick with a heart problem, and they die of COVID-19, they say they die of a heart problem."
"This country," he continued, "and their reporting systems are really not doing it right," by naming COVID-19 as the cause of death, and not the terminal illness.
Trump added, "We're gonna start looking at things, because they have things a little bit backwards."

The president spoke out against his own government’s health experts, contradicting them on multiple fronts, but especially on the importance of wearing masks. In June, he even told The Wall Street Journal that Americans who chose to wear masks were doing so just to show their disapproval of him.
With US coronavirus cases at record levels, Trump on Sunday repeated his refrain that the nation is "rounding the turn" in the pandemic, while Vice President Mike Pence pressed ahead with campaigning despite positive COVID-19 tests among multiple aides.

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With nine days to go before the Nov. 3 election in which Democrat Joe Biden is challenging the Republican president, the White House cited Pence's status as an "essential worker" as justification for his travel despite exposure to his chief of staff, Marc Short, who tested positive on Saturday.

The United States on Friday registered 84,244 new coronavirus cases and 79,852 cases on Saturday, the nation's largest daily totals since the beginning of a pandemic that has killed about 225,000 Americans and left millions of people jobless.

While Pence was set to campaign in North Carolina later on Sunday, Trump addressed a rally at an airport in New Hampshire.

"We are coming around, we're rounding the turn, we have the vaccines, we have everything. Even without the vaccines, we're rounding the turn," Trump told a crowd of cheering supporters, many not wearing protective masks or observing social-distancing recommendations. "It's going to be over. And you know who got it? I did. Can you believe it?"

While numerous COVID-19 vaccines are being developed, none has been approved for use in the United States.

Multiple senior aides to Pence also tested positive for COVID-19, the White House chief of staff said.

It marked the latest coronavirus infections in the White House, which have included Trump, first lady Melania Trump, their son Barron and numerous aides and associates.

The new infections offered a reminder of the way Trump - who was hospitalized for three nights this month after contracting COVID-19 - and those around him have downplayed the advice of public health experts to wear masks and observe social distancing guidelines to stem COVID-19 transmission.

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters that White House doctors have cleared Pence to travel after Short tested positive. Pence is scheduled to address rallies in Kinston, North Carolina, later on Sunday and in Hibbing, Minnesota, on Monday.

Devin O'Malley, a spokesman for the vice president, said late on Saturday that Pence and his wife tested negative.

Asked on CNN's "State of the Union" why Pence was not following U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to quarantine for 14 days after such exposure, Meadows on Sunday cited the vice president's status as "essential personnel."

Meadows said Pence would continue to campaign and speak at rallies.

Biden's running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, took four days off the campaign trail earlier this month after her communications director tested positive for COVID-19.

Speaking in Detroit as she campaigned in the battleground state of Michigan, Harris criticized Pence for continuing to travel, saying, "He should be following the guidelines."

Trump has mocked Biden for wearing a protective mask.

Reuters contributed to this report.