Live updates: Fauci calls focus on lower coronavirus death rate, touted by Trump, ‘a false narrative’

The nation’s top infectious-disease expert on Tuesday called recent focus on the coronavirus’s decreasing mortality rate in the United States a “false narrative,” while President Trump continued to tout those numbers on Twitter.

“It’s a false narrative to take comfort in a lower rate of death,” said Anthony S. Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, during a news conference. He said that the country has gotten better at treating people and that the average age of virus patients is dropping.

Trump has called “99 percent” of coronavirus cases “totally harmless,” contradicting health experts, even as rising new infections and hospitalizations in many states prompt some alarmed officials to roll back reopening. Continue reading.