President Donald Trump apparently took a coronavirus test on Friday night after several officials tested positive for the virus after visiting Mar-a-Lago last weekend. However, a virologist questioned the amount of time Trump claimed it would take to get results back.
During a press conference on Saturday, Trump made a surprise appearance and told reporters that he had taken a coronavirus test.
“I also took the test last night,” Trump said. “And I decided I should, based on the press conference yesterday. People were asking, ‘Did I take the test?'”
Reporters asked when the test results would return.
“A day, two days. They send it to a lab,” Trump replied.
While covering the press conference, MSNBC’s Alex Witt asked virologist and epidemiologist Joseph Fair about Trump’s claim, and it turns out that coronavirus test results should come back in two hours, not one or two days.
“Yeah, I mean, typically a test like this, what we call a RTP-CR [reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction] takes around two hours completely,” Fair pointed out. “And I would think if the president was tested, it would be a two-hour turn around on the assay. I’m surprised that there are no results yet.”
Here’s the video via YouTube:
Of course, even if the coronavirus test comes back positive, Trump will likely lie and get his doctors to lie about the result. After all, it would be ironic for Trump to contract a virus he called a “hoax.”
He would be pilloried for the rest of his term, especially since he claimed that the coronavirus outbreak had been contained. It’s not contained if he and other officials are contracting it.
As of today, there are 2,500 reported cases across the nation and 55 deaths. Lack of testing due to Trump’s poor response to the epidemic means the number of cases could be much higher.
Simply put, Trump can’t be trusted and our country is paying a price for it.
Featured Image: YouTube screenshot
