What did Donald Trump claim about the pandemic on 30 Apr 2020?
Donald Trump, President of the United States ·
We had a ventilator problem that was caused by the fact that we weren’t left ventilators by a previous administration.
The federal stockpile already held thousands of ventilators before Trump took office: about 4,400 in 2002, with 4,500 more added in 2009 and 2010.
A study in the CDC's journal Emerging Infectious Diseases reports that the Strategic National Stockpile 'included ≈4,400 ventilators' in 2002 and that '4,500 SNS ventilators were added during 2009 and 2010' (Stockpiling Ventilators for Influenza Pandemics, Emerging Infectious Diseases, Vol. 23, No. 6, June 2017).
Claim vs. the record · Pandemic
Added
The claim
- Date
- Where
- Remarks and exchange with reporters at a White House event on protecting seniors from the coronavirus, East Room.
The record
Primary source (peer-reviewed study)