President Offers Breezy Promises And Misinformation At Sharp Odds With Health Officials In Administration

The New York Times: Trump Makes Room For Experts, But Still Takes A Leading Role On Coronavirus
At a campaign rally this week in North Carolina, President Trump reassured the crowd that he had jawboned the nation’s pharmaceutical companies into quickly tackling the coronavirus. “They’re going to have vaccines, I think, relatively soon,” he said. But “soon” was correct only if it meant 12 to 18 months from now. Both health officials and drug industry executives have repeatedly told Mr. Trump that a vaccine was still a long way off. Yet by promising a vaccine “soon,” the president almost certainly misled at least some of the public into thinking a solution to the outbreak was just around the corner. (Baker and Crowley, 3/3)

The Associated Press: A Disconnect Between Trump And Health Officials On Virus
Whom to believe on the coronavirus threat — the president saying one thing or the public health officials standing beside him and saying something a little different? President Donald Trump’s breezy talk Tuesday of a virus that’s “got the world aflutter” contrasts with the gravity and caution conveyed by federal scientists as Americans look to the government not just for reassurance, but for realism. (3/3)

The Washington Post: Trump Coronavirus Effort Undermined By Mixed Messages And Falsehoods
When Anthony Fauci, clad in a white lab coat, invited an “NBC Nightly News” correspondent into his offices this week and described the coronavirus as an “outbreak” that was reaching “likely pandemic proportions,” the immunologist was acting as he long has during public health crises: delivering a fact-based warning to the public. But at the White House, the more politically minded officials overseeing the administration’s response were irritated that Fauci — the veteran director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — had used the word “pandemic” without giving anyone on Vice President Pence’s staff a heads-up, according to two people familiar with the situation. (Rucker, Abutaleb and Parker, 3/3)

The Washington Post Fact Checker: No, Trump Didn’t Shut Down 37 Of 47 Global Anti-Pandemic Programs
Trump “shut down 37 of 47 global anti-pandemic programs.” — Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), in a tweet, Feb. 25, 2020. Murphy made this claim in a tweet that complained that President Trump had put no one in charge of dealing with the coronavirus — Vice President Pence has since been given the authority — and that Trump “made a choice to make us vulnerable … to this pandemic and the next one and the next one.” (Kessler, 3/4)

ABC News: Trump To Visit NIH Vaccine Research Center As Novel Coronavirus Spreads 
President Donald Trump on Tuesday is set to visit the vaccine research center at the National Institutes of Health as his administration continues to project an aggressive approach to tackling the novel coronavirus, as more than 100 cases and six deaths have now been reported in the U.S. The NIH visit comes as the president continues to strike an unrealistically optimistic tone in speaking about the pace of vaccine development. Earlier in the day, the president said he told vaccine developers to “speed it up” – and added “they will.” (Phelps, 3/3)

Politico: CDC Blocked FDA Official From Premises
In a sign of growing tension among the Trump administration’s health agencies, officials are expressing frustration that a top scientist was initially rebuffed when attempting to visit the CDC in Atlanta last month to help coordinate the government’s stalled coronavirus testing, two individuals with knowledge of the episode told POLITICO. (Diamond, 3/3)

In other news —

Politico: Fed Slashes Rates In Emergency Response To Coronavirus
The Federal Reserve announced Tuesday that it is cutting interest rates by half a percentage point, an emergency move designed to bolster the U.S. economy amid risks posed by the coronavirus outbreak, which is expected to endanger economies around the world. (Guida and Forgey, 3/3)

The Hill: Poll: Coronavirus Fears Dampen Sentiment About The Economy
Voters remain bullish about the state of the economy but there are warning signs that the coronavirus outbreak is causing new anxieties, according to a new poll. The latest Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll found that 70 percent of voters believe the economy is strong, a 4 point decline from the same poll last month. When voters were asked if they expect a recession in the next six months, 41 percent said they believe the economy will remain the same, 37 percent said they expect a recession and 23 percent said the economy would improve. (Easley, 3/3)