Republican Senator Slams Trump for Contradicting Medical Experts on Coronavirus

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The coronavirus has continued to disrupt life in the United States as the epidemic appears to slow down in mainland China, and a Republican senator has advised President Donald Trump to “let the professionals do the talking” after the president continued to contradict medical professionals on the outbreak.

Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who chairs the Senate Health Committee, says Trump should stop contradicting medical experts on the coronavirus. Trump made headlines in recent weeks for characterizing the response to the virus as hysteria, for saying a vaccine for the virus could be available “relatively soon” (despite experts saying that creating a vaccine could take a year or more), and for stating that virus cases were “going very substantially down, not up” even as the number of infected individuals increases.

“My advice to the president and the vice president is let the professionals do the talking,” Alexander said.

“The more we listen to the heads of those agencies, I think the better. Because if the administration talks too much people think that it’s taking credit,” he continued. “But if the Democrats talk too much they’ll think they’re playing politics.”

In the last week, amid criticism over his appointment of Vice President Mike Pence to handle the crisis, Trump suggested that Democrats are undermining his administration’s response to the virus.

Dozens of new diagnoses have been reported in the last week, bringing the total number of coronavirus in the United States to at least 128. There have been nine deaths, all in Washington state.