New York Daily News Uses Old Donald Trump Quote To Mark 500,000 Dead From COVID-19

The New York Daily News marked the grim national 500,000 death toll from COVID-19 on its front page Tuesday with an old quote from ex-President Donald Trump .

The tabloid newspapers cover recalled the then-president boasting on Feb. 26 last year that there were only 15 cases of the coronavirus in the United States and that those infections within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.

So Far From Zero, the headline screams in capital letters:

SO FAR FROM ZERO
\"15 within a couple of days ... down close to zero.\" Trump, Feb. 26, 2020

Feb. 22, 2021: 500,000 Americans dead.
Biden grieves COVID deaths https://t.co/A2p5FjJeXK, https://t.co/U8XdkQxcEw

SCOTUS OKs tax release https://t.co/WqlHCisHCG, https://t.co/mCVLJSQXct pic.twitter.com/A8ofiwbdP5

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SO FAR FROM ZERO
"15 within a couple of days ... down close to zero." Trump, Feb. 26, 2020

Feb. 22, 2021: 500,000 Americans dead.
Biden grieves COVID deaths https://t.co/A2p5FjJeXK , https://t.co/U8XdkQxcEw

SCOTUS OKs tax release https://t.co/WqlHCisHCG , https://t.co/mCVLJSQXct pic.twitter.com/A8ofiwbdP5
New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) February 23, 2021

Trumps claim, however, contradicted his own admission in a Feb. 7, 2020, telephone call with journalist Bob Woodward that the virus was deadly.

You just breathe the air and thats how its passed, Trump told Woodward at the time. And so thats a very tricky one. Thats a very delicate one. Its also more deadly than even your strenuous flus.

Despite his private acknowledgments, Trump in public later repeatedly downplayed the threat posed by the virus, mocked people who wore masks to curb its spread, and touted unproven drugs and the injection of disinfectant. He finally contracted COVID-19 himself and was hospitalized for three days.

His administrations shambolic response to the pandemic and his success in politicizing prevention efforts as a culture war issue helped make the U.S. the worlds leader in deaths and infections.

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