Trump said 'yeah, okay' and hung up on health secretary Alex Azar when he warned in January 2020 that the 'new virus in China' could be 'very dangerous', new book claims
Donald Trump dismissed warnings about the threat of coronavirus from his then-head of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, a new book revealed.
'Mr. President, I've got to tell you something. There's this new virus out of China that could be extremely dangerous. It could be the kind of thing we have been preparing for and worried about,' Azar told Trump during a phone call in January 2020, according to excerpts of Nightmare Scenario, which hit bookshelves on Tuesday.
The book, by two Washington Post reporters, details that Trump appeared uninterested in the conversation. It also claims Azar 'could barely get a word in before Trump started shouting'.
Azar was able to inform Trump that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had already started screening travelers from China to the U.S. He urged, however, that more safety measures be taken to mitigate the potential spread.
'Yeah, okay,' Trump replied before abruptly hanging up the phone.
Donald Trump dismissed then-HHS Secretary Alex Azar's warnings about a new virus from China in January 2020 because he was more concerned about a new health decision on e-cigarettes ruining his chances of reelection, a new book revealed
The conversation in mid-January came as Trump spent some time away from Washington at his South Florida resort Mar-a-Lago.
According to the book, Trump aides sent him off the West Palm Beach because they thought the then-president needed cheering up a month after the House impeached him over allegations he tried to solicit Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election.
Not too long after that conversation took place, COVID-19 broke out in the U.S., causing states to impose lockdowns and restrictions to try and stop the spread in the early days of the pandemic when not much was known about the virus.
The book explains that Trump was more interested in yelling at Azar about e-cigarettes instead of the new virus from China.
Nightmare Scenario, by two Washington Post journalists, hit shelves Tuesday and details Trump's response to the COVID-19 pandemic
A recent health policy banning most flavored electronic cigarettes had angered Trump, causing Azar to be on shaky ground at the time with the president.
His warnings, therefore, failed to get through since Trump was more worried about the e-cigarette decision costin him reelection.
Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration's Response to the Pandemic That Changed History was written by Washington Post journalists Damian Paletta and Yasmeen Abutaleb and details the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic.
As Trump had a hiatus in Mar-a-Lago in January, his administration grew worried about the virus' threat to America – and the world.
Now, Trump likes to laud his response to the pandemic, claiming if it weren't for him there would be no vaccine and a lot more deaths if he hadn't shut down international travel despite pushback over the move.
At his rallies and speeches since losing the election, Trump claims a vaccine would not have been developed for another several years if he hadn't fast-tracked the process while still in office.