President Trump said he thinks coronavirus testing is a little “overrated,” but he’s willing to keep it going if that’s what experts believe will help root out cases and slow the spread.
He said the U.S. will surpass 50 million tests this weekend.
“Every time you test, you find a case, and you know, it gets reported in the news we found more cases,” Mr. Trump said in an interview that aired Wednesday evening on Fox News. “If, instead of 50, we did 25, we would have half the number of cases.”
“So, I personally think it’s overrated. But I am totally willing to keep doing it,” he said.
He said the U.S. is spending a lot of money on “massive” testing.
“And I’m OK with it. The experts are saying it’s a good thing to do,” he said. “But again, it makes us look bad, but they say it’s good. I don’t mind looking bad, if it’s a
good thing.”
“But think of it,” he continued. “If, instead of 50 million, we did 25 million, we’d have half the number of cases. The cases would be down. Here would be the normal headline. Not for me, it wouldn’t be, but for anybody else, they’d say, cases cut in half, OK? But they wouldn’t report it that way.”
There has been a resurgence of coronavirus cases in some parts of the U.S., with daily reported cases regularly topping 60,000 recently.
The number of tests has also increased significantly since February and March, but the increase in testing does not fully account for the recent uptick in cases.
The percentage of tests coming back positive is also well above what experts say is a healthy level in many spots.
