Was the CDC Director ‘Totally Misquoted’ on the Risk of a Second Coronavirus Wave?

Nope.

By
11

During the daily coronavirus task force press briefing Wednesday, President Trump claimed that CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield was “totally misquoted in the media on a statement about the fall season and the virus.” The quotes in question came from an interview of Redfield with the Washington Post. The Post reported Redfield’s comments this way: 

“There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” CDC Director Robert Redfield said in an interview with The Washington Post. “And when I’ve said this to others, they kind of put their head back, they don’t understand what I mean.”

“We’re going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time,” he said.

Trump accused the Post and CNN, which used the Redfield quotes from the Post in a separate story, of inaccurate and misleading reporting. Trump claimed Redfield “was talking about the flu and corona coming together at the same time and corona could be just some little flare-ups that we’ll take care of.” White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany made similar claims Wednesday afternoon during a Fox News interview and an informal press briefing. Earlier in the day, President Trump had complained on Twitter that Redfield was “totally misquoted by fake news CNN.” 

Create a free account
Access additional articles and newsletters for no cost, no credit card information needed. Continue ALREADY HAVE AN ACCOUNT? SIGN IN
11
By
Comments (11)
Join The Dispatch to participate in the comments.
 
  1. Avatar photo
    Visibly

    No, he was not misquoted. But he says what should make us more positive about these second and third waves than in earlier times: We can reduce the rate of flu with vaccination, we can reduce the rate of C19 by physical distancing. And the health system now understands and can better deal with patients with C19. Forewarned is forearmed etc.

    Collapse
  2. Avatar photo
    Pat Riot

    What is short-circuiting Trump and the Republicans here is that *you can't lie about immediate reality*.

    The plain fact is that as a nation we need to prepare for a second wave of the epidemic (with the understanding that, if we prepare carefully enough, we will get through it with minimal loss of life and jobs).

    But Trump is bifurcating Americans thusly:

    1. Some see Mr. Redfield's statement in a political light, and root for Trump and the Republicans to prevail. They try to understand his political bias, what he does to help or hurt Trump's chances in the coming election, and how this effects their ongoing misson to own the libs.

    2. Some see Mr. Redfield's statement as a matter of fact, and prepare themselves, their family, their schedules, plans, businesses, stock portfolios, schools, etc. based on those facts (and that the "fact" here is a non-exact prediction is beside the point--such plans based on that are made all of the time, even most of the time).

    Trump is dividing the USA into normal, prudent, small-c conservative people and... mindless idiots who don't give a single thought about what will happen any further out than the day after tomorrow.

    Collapse
  3. Avatar photo
    Ckirk

    Thank you for your fact checking. I appreciate it and always look forward to reading the clear reporting.

    Collapse
  4. Avatar photo
    Kevin Johnson

    This is useful. It shows, again, that Trump can’t resist exaggerating even when he has a point about a specific report or news outlet. However, the emphasis you choose “he was quoted accurately in the story”, rather than, “the headline was misleading” is a problem. You must know that many people only see the headline. And many pundits, columnists, etc. will use only the headline to argue the substance of the issue, and only your emphasis that Trump was wrong to claim misquoting in the article. Thus failing to highlight another important truth important to readers: the headline was misleadingly juiced to create a false impression. A fair reading of “article quotes were accurate but headline was misleading” would be, in my view, a balanced reading. Let’s use a non-Trump example of how NYT, for example, twists facts to intentionally present a false narrative and point to how honest reporting from The Dispatch can address This practice. To this day, NYT writers cleverly push the narrative that Michael Brown was murdered by police in Ferguson. They list “unarmed, black, teenagers, shot by police” and include Brown in the list. They don’t note that Obama’s DOJ found that Brown’s shooting was justified after he twice attacked the officer. So NYT says something true, that black teens were shot by police, specifically including cases such as Brown, intending to create the false narrative that they were gunned down in cold blood. I wrote the NYT several times when this happened and got no response. The misleading headline here is far less egregious, but it is part of a pattern by mainstream media to push particular policy positions in news stories. I applaud The Dispatch for continuing to highlight Trump’s exaggerated and false claims about the press. However, even paranoids have enemies. In this case, I suggest balancing the false accusation of “totally misquoted” with more emphasis on “misleading headline...part of a pattern” would be more accurate. You give far more emphasis to the former than the latter, I think, leaving an inaccurate impression. Thanks.

    Collapse
  5. Avatar photo
    Earl King

    I watched and read both...the headline is inaccurate IMHO. He did use the words "more difficult", and in the context of having both Flu and Covid at the same time would be exactly that. Difficult to manage. As a Paramedic we would be told to assume the Pt. has Covid-19 which would start a cascade of protocols. The ED would have to do the same thing...Everybody who get the Flu will assume they have Covid-19 and run to the ED. Only 50% of the population get the annual flu shot each year. The vaccine itself runs between 40% to 60% effective. There are many strains of Flu that run thru the population, they have to guess which one will be more prevalent. So yes it will be more difficult...it doesn't mean we'll have a 1 million undiagnosed cases running around and another high death toll.

    Collapse
    1. Bruce Wing

      All fair points, but one would have to explain why there won’t be a lot of deaths after reopening. While generally agreeing that media outlets want to position Trump in the worst possible light, it is also true that Trump has difficulty play a hedged position. It appears (to me) that he’s a lights on, lights off kind of guy. There’s no dimmer switch.

      Collapse
      1. Avatar photo
        Earl King

        Trump is his own worst enemy.

        Collapse
        1. Bruce Wing

          I think it was a Joe Rogan that said a Trump has great instincts. I tend to agree. What I further see that while he knows which way to go, he has no idea how to get there. I keep challenging myself on that point because you’d assume a guy with as much real estate experience as Trump would implicitly think in a project management kind of way. Yet, for all my logic, I don’t see it. I guess that is why empirical analysis is more valuable than a philosophy based on logic. :)

          Collapse
      2. Bruce Wing

        playing..

        Collapse
  6. Bruce Wing

    The man is killing me (no pun intended). Anyone that has bothered to look knows that the Spanish Flu hit in 3 waves...and the 2nd was much more lethal than the first. The Hong Kong Flu that hit in '68 came in two waves also... and the 2nd wave was worst than the first. In both viruses, doctors tend to believe the R0 factor increased, making the disease more infectious than the first wave...thus leading to more deaths.

    I respect anyone saying that holing up at home is not a viable tactic for long. However, why can't Trump simply say that until there is a cure or a 100% protective vaccine, there will be deaths when the economy re-opens? It was a rhetorical question. I know. Trump is an idiot.

    BTW, if you haven't seen it, Marco Rubio did a fantastic job of communicating the message in exactly the right tone the other day in a YouTube video.

    Collapse
  7. Avatar photo
    Kevin Durant?

    Sorry folks, “possibly more difficult” =/= “likely more devastating”

    Is the idea that they *could* have said “definitely apocalypse” instead of “likely devastating”, so since there were bigger lies available they should get credit for keeping it tastefully mendacious?
    LOL k

    Collapse