Admiral Brett Giroir, who serves as the assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the White House’s leader on COVID-19 testing, on Wednesday morning pushed back against President Donald Trump’s falsely rosy framing of the COVID-19 pandemic.
During an interview with “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, Giroir rejected Trump’s false claim that increased testing is the only reason why the number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. has spiked.
“It’s not just a function of testing,” Girior told Guthrie. “Yes we’re getting more cases identified, but the cases are actually going up, and we know that too because hospitalizations are going up[…]Those are real. And we do know deaths are increasing, unfortunately.”
“So we do assess that the cases are actually going up,” he added.
Trump has repeatedly claimed with zero evidence that the U.S. is “rounding the corner” on the virus in his effort to downplay his disastrous response to the virus, which has killed more than 225,000 Americans so far.
Additionally, the President keeps parroting one of his favorite excuses for the rise in recorded infections: Testing.
“Cases up because we TEST, TEST, TEST,” he tweeted on Monday.
Watch Giroir below:
“The cases are actually going up. They’re real.” –@HHS_ASH tells @SavannahGuthrie #COVID19 hospitalizations and deaths are on the rise. pic.twitter.com/LPJzOvTFDL
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) October 28, 2020
