CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta asked President Trump what he has to say to Americans who are upset with him for having repeatedly downplayed the virus in February and early March.

Acosta read out a series of Trump quotes, including a February 23 remark in which Trump claimed the virus was “very much under control in this country” and a March 10 remark in which Trump said, “It will go away. Just stay calm, it will go away.”

Trump responded, “If you look at those individual statements, they’re all true: stay calm, it will go away. You know it is going away.”

Facts First: Trump’s previous comments were not “all true.” The virus was clearly not “under control” in February – nor was it under control in mid-March, when Trump made another version of the claim, and nor is it under control today.

And Trump was misleading when he said on March 10 that the virus “will go away." While the virus may eventually be eliminated in the United States, Trump did not mention that thousands of Americans could die before this happened, nor that the country could have to implement drastic measures to try to slow its spread.

Experts also warn that there could be a second wave of the virus in the US even after the immediate crisis is over.

"#COVID19 won't go away. It'll infect the southern hemisphere as they winter and will want to come back to U.S. in fall," Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who formerly served as Trump's Food and Drug Administration commissioner, wrote on Twitter after Trump's comment on Monday. "But we'll have a massive surveillance system by then, and I believe more than one drug to both prevent and treat infection. Our tool box will be very different."