comment was disputed by fda commissioner stephen hahn and mayors of several southern cities. in mid-july, the trump administration told hospitals to begin reporting covid-19 data to states rather than to the cdc. as a result of no longer receiving data directly, the cdc removed existing data from its public online "dashboard." when federal health officials complained that the cdc was no longer publishing data, the trump administration swiftly reinstated the cdc dashboard. on july 19, in an interview with chris wallace on fox news sunday, trump disputed wallace's statement (based on johns hopkins university numbers) that the u.s. had the seventh-highest mortality rate in the world from covid-19, stating that "we have one of the lowest mortality rates in the world", and presenting wallace a white house-produced chart (claimed to be sourced from the european centre for disease prevention and control) in support of this statement. he again downplayed the threat, arguing that "many of those cases are young people that would heal in a day they have the sniffles and we put it down as a test." on july 21, trump acknowledged that the outbreak would "get worse before it gets better" and said that his administration is "in the process of developing a strategy." august on august 2, deborah birx appeared on cnn and warned of a new surge. afterward, she received a "very uncomfortable" and "very difficult" phone call from trump, though she did not reveal this publicly until the following year. on august 17, speaking to a crowd in mankato, minnesota, trump said of the pandemic's effect on the economy: "that's god testing me." trump said he performed an "economic miracle" and addressed god: "did i do a great job, god? i'm the only one that could do it." in august 2020, president trump retweeted that only 6% of reported covid-19 deaths in the united states were actually from the disease, based on covid-19 being the only condition listed on the death certificate. the lead mortality statistician at the cdc's national center for health statistics said that those death certificates likely did not include all the steps that led to the death and thus were incomplete. the cdc collects data based on case surveillance, vital records, and excess deaths. september on downplaying the virus "the presidentnever downplayed the virus." —kayleigh mcenany, september 9, 2020 "i wanted to always play it down. i still like playing it down because i don't want to create a panic." —trump, recorded privately on march 19, 2020 (bob woodward released recording in sept.) on september 9, quotes and audio from bob woodward's march 2020 interviews with trump were made public, including his march 19 admission that he wanted to "play it down". press secretary kayleigh mcenany told journalists that trump had "never downplayed the virus," had rather chosen to "express calm" in public, and "has never lied to the american public on covid." public reaction concerned whether woodward should have published his findings immediately rather than waiting for his book release; woodward defended his process. the next day, september 10, trump echoed this public debate in a tweet: "bob woodward had my quotes for many months. if he thought they were so bad or dangerous, why didn't he immediately report them in an effort to save lives?" because, trump answered himself, woodward had seen nothing to criticize; his own statements had been "good and proper...calm, no panic!" on september 13, in a video posted to facebook, hhs spokesman michael caputo accused cdc scientists of "sedition" against trump. he also maligned them as lazy. two days later, caputo apologized and took a 60-day medical leave of absence. on september 21, trump said at a rally in ohio that the virus "really affects" elderly people "with heart problems and other problems," and then he added, "below the age of 18, like, nobody." he then said: "but it affects virtually nobody. it's an amazing thing." october containing versus controlling the virus "we're not going to control the pandemic. we are gonna control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigations. ... (i)t is a contagious virus just like the flu." "(w)e're going to defeat the virus. we're not going to control it. we will try to contain it as best we can." —chief of staff mark meadows october 25 and 26, 2020 on death count "well, why aren't they talking about deaths? oh, oh, because the number is almost nothing. because we've gotten control of this, and we understand how it works." —donald trump, jr., october 29, 2020 (deaths that day: 1,000) on october 6, trump claimed that covid-19 is "in most populations far less lethal" than the flu. he posted the same message to both twitter and facebook. both social media companies treated this as misinformation: twitter placed a warning message over the tweet, and facebook deleted the equivalent post on its platform. at a rally in carson city, nevada on october 18, trump attempted to credit obama vice president and democratic presidential nominee joe biden as being responsible for stay-at-home orders, arguing that "under the biden lockdown, the lights of reno and las vegas were extinguished", and that "if he comes in, carson city will become a ghost town and the christmas season will be canceled." these comments were made despite that fact that biden is a private citizen not in an elected office, the lockdowns occurred while trump was in office, and that christmas would too even if biden were elected (as he would not take office until january 20, 2021 as per established precedent). in a campaign call on october 19, trump claimed that americans were bored of hearing about covid-19. "people are saying 'whatever, just leave us alone.' they're tired of it. people are tired of hearing fauci and all these idiots," he said, adding that fauci has "been here for 500 years." in the final 2020 presidential debate against biden on october 22—as daily deaths in the united states neared an all-time high—trump argued that the united states was "learning to live with . we have no choice. we can't lock ourselves up in a basement like joe does. he has the ability to lock himself up, we can't close up our nation, or you're not going to have a nation." he again claimed that the united states was "rounding the turn". biden countered trump's argument, replying "he says that we're learning to live with it. people are learning to die with it. you folks home will have an empty chair at the kitchen table this morning. that man or wife going to bed tonight and reaching over to try to touch ... out of habit, where their wife or husband was, is gone. learning to live with it? come on. we're dying with it." on october 25, white house chief of staff mark meadows stated on cnn that "we're not going to control the pandemic", and that the best that could be done was "vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigation." on october 27, the office of science and technology policy published a news release listing "ending the covid-19 pandemic" as one of the trump administration's "accomplishments", at a time when the seven-day u.s. case average (then 70,000/day) was the highest to date. on october 30, at a rally in michigan, trump accused hospitals of inflating the count of covid-19 deaths, falsely claiming that "doctors get more money if someone dies from covid." mitigation measures and policies implementing restrictions in his first comment on covid-19 in a major address, trump in his february 4 state of the union pledged that his "administration will take all necessary steps to safeguard our citizens from this threat". on february 28, trump stated that "we are doing everything in our power to keep the infection and those carrying the infection from entering the country. we have no choice." on march 11, 2020, after the who declared covid-19 a global pandemic, president trump delivered an oval office address. in his speech, trump stated that his administration was "marshaling the full power of the federal government and the private sector to protect the american people". he announced that the united states was "suspending all travel from europe to the united states for the next 30 days", except travel from the united kingdom, and including "the tremendous amount of trade and cargo". trump also listed several economic policy proposals designed to provide tax relief for workers, aid small businesses, and fight the spread of the virus. trump declared that insurance companies "have agreed to waive all co-payments for coronavirus treatments". after the speech, america's health insurance plans clarified the waivers were only for tests, not for treatments, but by march 10 treatment was also covered. trump also clarified that said trade was still approved under the travel restrictions, and administration officials clarified that american citizens or legal permanent residents or their families were not affected. trump praised his administration's response to the "foreign" virus while stating that "a large number of new clusters in the united states were seeded by travelers from europe." he closed the speech by calling for less partisanship during the pandemic and praising americans' response to adversity. on march 16, president trump and the coronavirus task force released new recommendations based on cdc guidelines for americans, titled "15 days to slow the spread". these recommendations included physical distancing and hygienic instructions, as well as directions to the states in dealing with school closures, nursing homes, and common public venues. on march 28, trump raised the possibility of placing a two-week enforceable quarantine on new york, new jersey, and "certain parts of connecticut" to prevent travel from those places to florida. the federal quarantine power is limited to preventing people reasonably believed to be infected with a communicable disease from entering the country or crossing state lines. later that day, following criticism from the three governors, trump withdrew the quarantine proposal. instead, the cdc issued a travel advisory advising residents of the three states to "refrain from non-essential domestic travel for 14 days effective immediately". on april 1, trump falsely asserted that americans were being tested for covid-19 as they got on and off planes and trains. on april 2, anthony fauci stated: "i don't understand why" some states still had yet to implement stay-at-home orders. by april 3, the states of arkansas, iowa, nebraska, north dakota and south dakota had not implemented any such orders, while the states of alabama, missouri, oklahoma, south carolina, utah and wyoming had implemented stay-at-home orders in some regions of the states, but not state-wide. on september 16, attorney general bill barr characterized lockdowns as a serious civil rights violation: "other than slavery, which was a different kind of restraint, this is the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in american history." house majority whip jim clyburn criticized the comparison, stating that it was "the most ridiculous, tone-deaf, god-awful thing i've ever heard." before thanksgiving, deborah birx advised americans to limit holiday gatherings to "your immediate household." she did not follow this advice herself; the day after thanksgiving, she traveled to a vacation property where she spent time with her daughter's family. lifting restrictions on march 22, trump indicated a desire to scale back physical distancing measures: "we cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself." a day later, he argued that economic problems arising from physical distancing measures will cause "suicides by the thousands" and "probably more death" than covid-19 itself. he declared that the united states would "soon, be open for business", in a matter of weeks. during a virtual fox news town hall on march 24, trump stated restrictions had been "very painful for our country and very destabilizing. he expressed a desire to have the country "opened" within two weeks, anticipating "beautiful" and "packed" church services for easter (april 12). a survey of prominent economists by the university of chicago indicated that abandoning a lockdown prematurely would do more economic damage than maintaining it. law and economics scholars argued that the lockdowns were justified based on a cost-benefit analysis. on the march 26 episode of hannity, trump stated that there were plans to classify states by covid-19 risks, possibly allowing for measures to be lifted on a regional basis. despite stating in a previous briefing that he