Trump Cancels CDC Visit Over Coronavirus Scare

President Donald Trump's scheduled visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta on Friday was abruptly called off. Though the White House sought to downplay the change of schedule, Trump himself admitted that they suspected a personnel at the CDC headquarters of being infected with coronavirus.

Initially, the White House had said that a decision was made because “the president does not want to interfere with the CDC’s mission to protect the health and welfare of their people and the agency.”

Trump, however, offered a rather different explanation. During a ceremony held at the White House, the president signed an $8 billion bill into law aimed at combating the novel coronavirus. There, Trump said that his Atlanta visit had originally been called off over concerns that an individual at the CDC’s headquarters had contracted the virus, reported CNN.

“They've tested the person very fully and it was a negative test. I may be going. They're going to see if they can turn it around with Secret Service,” Trump said.

The trip to Atlanta was planned to come after a stop in Nashville, Tenn., where the president is expected to visit tornado victims.

While it is currently unclear if Trump’s visit to the CDC will still happen on Friday or be rescheduled to another day, the trip will provide the president with a much needed chance to do damage control. A chance to rally the troops would be undoubtedly good optics, especially after the storm of criticism Trump has been facing over the handling of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States. Confusing and contradicting statements from officials have played a major role in generating this criticism.

This week, Trump disputed a figure from the World Health Organization that estimates the death rate from the coronavirus is 3.4 percent, calling it a “false number.”

“Now, this is just my hunch … I would say, the number is way under 1 percent,” Trump said during an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News Wednesday night.

Trump also suggested that the symptoms of the coronavirus are so mild that “some of them go to work, but they get better.”