President Donald Trump said Monday that he expected the coronavirus epidemic to disappear with the end of winter a remark at odds with warnings from infectious disease experts.

Trumps comments on the virus known as 2019-nCoV, which has infected more than 42,000 people globally and claimed more than 1,000 lives , came during a White House business session with state governors.

A lot of people think that goes away in April as the heat comes in, Trump said of the outbreak that began in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Typically that will go away in April. Were in great shape though. We have 12 cases, 11 cases, and many of them are in good shape.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed 13 coronavirus infections in the U.S. and said tests are pending on at least 68 other potential cases. The last confirmed American case was Feb. 5 in Wisconsin, officials said.

The presidents remarks set off some concern that he didnt have a solid understanding of the threat at hand.

This statement minimizes the many critical factors needed for the containment of the outbreak and the prevention of further disease spread, such as adequate infection control measures and contact tracing, Dr. Britta Lassmann, program director for the International Society for Infectious Diseases, told HuffPost.

Data on the role of temperature and climate on the transmissibility of 2019-nCoV are currently lacking, Lassmann added.