Mike Pence says 'there's been some irresponsible rhetoric' about coronavirus and that there will be 'thousands' more cases in the US

ERIC BARADAT/AFP via Getty Images

President Donald Trump (R) stands behind US Vice President Mike Pence as he speaks at a news conference with members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) on the COVID-19 outbreak at the White House on February 26, 2020.

• Vice President Mike Pence acknowledged on Thursday that "there has been some irresponsible rhetoric" from people who have downplayed the risks of the novel coronavirus.
• Asked on the TODAY Show about Americans who believe the illness does not pose a serious threat, Pence conceded, "Obviously there's been some irresponsible rhetoric. But the American people should know that President Trump has no higher priority than the health and safety and well-being of the people of this country."
• Pence also said the administration expects "there will be thousands more cases of coronavirus in this country."
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Vice President Mike Pence said on Thursday that the Trump administration expects "there will be thousands more cases of coronavirus in this country."

Appearing on NBC's TODAY Show, Pence was also asked about Americans who don't believe the illness poses a serious threat to the US public.

"Obviously there's been some irresponsible rhetoric," Pence said. "But the American people should know that President Trump has no higher priority than the health and safety and well-being of the people of this country."

The World Health Organization officially classified the novel coronavirus as a pandemic on Wednesday. There are more than 127,000 confirmed cases across the globe and over 4,700 deaths.

In the US, as of Thursday morning, at least 1,282 people in 44 states and Washington, D.C., have tested positive for coronavirus, according to The New York Times, and at least 37 patients with the virus have died.

Meanwhile, here are some of the most significant false and misleading statements Trump and US officials have made to sugarcoat the crisis in recent weeks:

• Late last month, Trump said the situation is "basically under control" and that the number of positive coronavirus cases in the US is "going very substantially down" to "close to zero." Pence echoed that claim, and White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the virus has been "contained."
  • Fact check: There's been a sharp increase in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases within the US over the last few weeks, and more than a dozen states have declared states of emergency to try to combat its rapid spread.
• Pence said there was no confusion over Trump's announcement of a European travel ban on Wednesday evening.
  • Fact check: European officials were blindsided by the move and had no advance warning. White House officials also scrambled to walk back three critical aspects of Trump's announcement after the fact.
• Trump said the coronavirus is "like a flu."
  • Fact check: While the two illnesses have similar symptoms, coronavirus has a much higher mortality rate of 1% compared to the flu's 0.1%. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of WHO, said this month that the coronavirus "causes more severe disease than seasonal influenza. While many people globally have built up immunity to seasonal flu strains, COVID-19 is a new virus to which no one has immunity. That means more people are susceptible to infection, and some will suffer severe disease."
• Trump suggested top health officials would have a coronavirus vaccine sometime in "the next few months."
  • Fact check: "You won't have a vaccine," Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said. "You'll have a vaccine to go into testing." Trump then said: "Alright, so you're talking within a year." Immediately after, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief infectious disease expert at the NIH, clarified, "A year to a year and a half."

Medical experts and public health officials have warned for weeks that they expect to see a significant increase in positive cases within the US.

Brian Monahan, who serves as Congress' and the Supreme Court's attending physician, told Senate staffers during a closed-door briefing this week that he expects anywhere from 70 million to 150 million people in the US to contract the virus, NBC News reported.

Financial markets are also continuing to plummet as investors lose confidence in the Trump administration's response to the pandemic.

On Wednesday evening, Trump announced that the US will ban travel from 26 European countries by non-US citizens, permanent residents, or some family members of US citizens and permanent residents for thirty days. He said those restrictions will also apply to the "tremendous amounts of trade and cargo" that come from Europe, but later hastily walked those comments back after global stocks took a nosedive.

US stocks plunged deeper into the red on Thursday after Trump's address to the nation failed to calm investor concerns over economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak.

Selling was so pronounced in the opening minutes that a market-wide circuit breaker was enacted, halting trading for 15 minutes.

All three major US indexes fell more than 7% in early trading. The S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq opened more than 20% below their recent highs, putting them into bear market territory. The Dow Jones industrial average, which already closed in a bear market a day earlier, extended losses.

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