Trump blames China for unleashing coronavirus
Other countries wanted to help China contain the coronavirus but were denied access, Trump says
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President Donald Trump blamed China for the coronavirus pandemic during a meeting with restaurant franchise executives and industry leaders Monday.
TRUMP: CORONAVIRUS SHOULD HAVE STOPPED IN CHINA
“China should be held responsible, they have hurt the world, hurt themselves,” he said. “We had a great success going. Things were really going along and then China gave us a wonderful gift and it wasn’t pretty. It came out of China in case you have any questions.”
“It spread to Europe but it also came here,” Trump added. “The whole world became infected by this horrible thing that they unleashed one way or the other.”
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The U.S. president went on to say he is unhappy with how the pandemic has unfolded, especially since “it was totally preventable.”
As of May 18, more than 1.5 million Americans have been infected by the respiratory virus and more than 90,200 have died from complications related to it, according to data from the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Dashboard.
Globally, that number spikes to more than 4.7 million infections and more than 317,600 deaths.
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China has been able to flatten its curve and sits at a little over 84,000 infections and 4,600 deaths.
“They knew it was happening. We wanted to go in. Others wanted to go in. They wouldn’t let the world as you know, they wouldn’t let other countries go in,” Trump continued with his criticism. “World Health wanted to, in all fairness to World Health. They wouldn’t let World Health in. And we’re a part of World Health. They wouldn’t let them in either.”
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“They could have stopped it at the source but they chose not to. And yet, they stopped them from going into Wuhan and different parts of China,” he added. “But seriously, look, they wouldn’t let them into China, but they let them into Europe and all over the rest of the world… I did the ban, that’s all I can tell you.”