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First US
coronavirus death follows Trump claim outbreak is a hoax
Washington
state governor confirms death
Biden,
Sanders and Buttigieg condemn president’s remark
South
Korea: ‘critical moment’ after 813 new cases
Martin
Pengelly in New York
Sat 29 Feb
2020 18.41 GMTFirst published on Sat 29 Feb 2020 17.03 GMT
Shortly
before the first coronavirus death in the US was confirmed, Joe Biden condemned
Donald Trump’s claim that the outbreak is a “new hoax” orchestrated by
Democrats in order to beat him at the polls in November.
“For him to … start talking about being a hoax
is absolutely dangerous,” Biden said in Greenville, South Carolina, on
Saturday. “It’s just not a decent way to act.”
Not long
after Biden spoke, Washington state’s governor, Jay Inslee, confirmed the death
in his state.
“It is a
sad day in our state as we learn a Washingtonian has died from Covid-19,” Inslee
said in a statement. Our hearts go out to his family and friends. We will
continue to work toward a day where no one dies from this virus.”
According
to the latest World Health Organization (WHO) situation report, 83,652 cases of
coronavirus and nearly 2,800 deaths have been reported worldwide.
The vast
majority of cases are in China but the spread of the virus has caused havoc with
stock markets and international travel and sporting and business events.
Before the
news of the Washington state fatality, US authorities reported three new cases
in the Pacific north-west overnight, bringing the total to 62.
The
president made his startling claim at a rally in North Charleston on Friday
night. South Carolina holds its Democratic primary on Saturday, with Biden
seeking a victory to re-establish his credentials against national frontrunner
Bernie Sanders.
“The
Democrats are politicising the coronavirus,” Trump said. “They’re politicising
it. One of my people came up to me and said: ‘Mr President, they tried to beat
you on Russia, Russia, Russia.’ That did not work out too well. They could not
do it. They tried the impeachment hoax.
“This is
their new hoax.”
Trump
repeatedly called Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian election
interference a hoax. The former special counsel did not establish criminal
conspiracy between Trump and Moscow but did lay out extensive evidence of
contacts between the campaign and Russians and numerous instances of potential
obstruction of justice.
Speaking to
reporters on Saturday morning, Biden said: “Some of the stuff he says is so
bizarre that you can laugh at it. It just so diminishes the faith that people
around the world have in the United States.”
Other
Democratic candidates weighed in on Trump’s remarks. Sanders asked why Trump
“repeatedly think[s] that scientific facts are hoaxes” and said “the most
dangerous president in the modern history of our country” was “putting our
people’s lives at risk”.
Pete
Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, told NBC News: “It’s
critically important that the administration and the White House handle this in
a way that’s based on science and not on politics. I was particularly disturbed
to hear the word ‘hoax’ used by the president.”
American
lives, Buttigieg added, “depend on the wisdom and the judgement of the
president at a time like this”.
Amid
criticism for previous budget cuts to epidemic defences as his administration
asked Congress for funding to address the coronavirus outbreak, Trump this week
placed the vice-president, Mike Pence, in charge of the US response. That move
also met widespread criticism.
Republicans
and supporters of Trump have fired back, accusing the president’s opponents and
the media of seeking political gain from the outbreak.
On Friday
the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, told Fox News Democrats had
reached a “new level of sickness” and wanted to see coronavirus kill “millions
of people”.
On Friday
night, the president said: “We are doing everything in our power to keep the
infection and those carrying the infection from entering the country. We have
no choice.”
He also
sought without offering evidence to tie coronavirus cases in the US to the
southern border, the focus of his hardline immigration policy.
“Whether
it’s the virus that we’re talking about,” Trump said, “or the many other public
health threats, the Democrat policy of open borders is a direct threat to the
health and wellbeing of all Americans.”
On
Saturday, Biden added: “Look, this is a serious, serious, serious problem. It’s
able to be solved, but it requires us to be absolutely levelheaded and let the
scientists have the lead in all of this.
“But for
[Trump] to … start talking about being a hoax is absolutely dangerous. It’s
just not a decent way to act.”
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