'All we got were lies': Doctor who warned of pandemic in 2006 attacks Trump's handling of coronavirus

Epidemiologist says president's claim that virus was a 'hoax' is 'the most irresponsible act of an elected official that I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime'

Larry Brilliant, who worked to eradicate smallpox and warned of a terrifying pandemic in 2006, has lambasted Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus outbreak in a new interview.

“All we got were lies,” the doctor told Wired about Mr Trump’s reaction to the global pandemic. “Saying it’s fake, by saying this is a Democratic hoax. There are still people today who believe that, to their detriment.”

He went on to describe the president’s public statements suggesting the virus was a “hoax” as “the most irresponsible act of an elected official that I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime”, and told the magazine the White House administration failed to provide good advice in the initial weeks of the pandemic.

The doctor was seemingly referring to comments Mr Trump made at a rally on 28 February, in which he claimed the Democratic Party was “politicising” the pandemic and said the virus had become “their new hoax”.

“Democrats will always say horrible things," he said the time. "Democrats want us to fail so badly.”

The president began to change his tone somewhat surrounding the virus in recent weeks, alleging his administration had “total control” over the outbreak in a press conference while warning the US economy would likely suffer as society effectively grinds to halt in most states across the country.

As health officials urged tens of millions of Americans to self-isolate and practice social distancing and the stock market continued to plunge amid increased anxieties surrounding coronavirus, Wired noted how the new reality echoed predictions Mr Brilliant made during a TED conference.

The doctor said about a potential pandemic: “A billion people would get sick.”

He added: “As many as 165 million people would die. There would be a global recession and depression, and the cost to our economy of $1 to $3 trillion would be far worse for everyone than merely 100 million people dying, because so many more people would lose their jobs and their health care benefits, that the consequences are almost unthinkable.”

The US faced significant hurdles in testing after confirming its first official case of the novel coronavirus on 20 January — the same day South Korea reported its own first case of the mysterious illness.

However, South Korea managed to test 274,000 citizens within two months, while the US only tested about 25,000 people during that same time. Analysts have said those weeks were a window of time in which health officials could have prevented countless deaths by testing patients with flu-like symptoms and slowing the transmission nationally.

Mr Brilliant said the latest advisory from US health officials and the Trump administration to isolate and limit gathering to no more than 10 people was better advice than the president’s previous comments. He also described the outbreak as “the most dangerous pandemic in our lifetime”.

“If you're not worried, you're not paying attention,” he said. “But I'm not scared. I firmly believe that the steps that we're taking will extend the time that it takes for the virus to make the rounds. I think that, in turn, will increase the likelihood that we will have a vaccine or we will have a prophylactic antiviral in time to cut off, reduce, or truncate the spread.”