President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the press briefing room at the White House, Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020, in Washington, as National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, Vice President Mike Pence and Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention listen. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Democrats and some in media have been politicizing the coronavirus, from lying about President Donald Trump, claiming he called the virus a “hoax”, to claiming that the CDC was cut and scientists are being muzzled from talking.

It’s a despicable thing to do when the truth is readily available.

Joe Biden, for example repeated both of those lies on the Sunday shows despite both being debunked already. He also claimed that Dr. Anthony Fauci was not being allowed to speak despite Fauci speaking all over the news.

But the facts are that President Donald Trump actually formed a task force more than a month ago, in addition to the CDC and other governmental agencies which are already in place to deal with such problems, whoever is the president.

As Dr. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, noted, Trump did one of the best things you can do early on which was restricting entry from affected areas of China.

Dr. Anthony Fauci: If President @realDonaldTrump had not prevented travel from China “we would have had many many more cases” in the U.S. pic.twitter.com/K5qetK6dij

— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) February 29, 2020

That said, it’s a new virus with a long incubation period and a big country, you can’t cut everything off, so the big thing will now be about testing and early isolation to help prevent further spread. There will be more diagnoses with more testing and we seeing that now, as Fauci is reporting. But it’s important to note the mortality rate is very low outside of China and Iran and that most of the cases will be recoverable.

As Forbes noted, the United States is the best prepared in the world to deal with an epidemic/pandemic.

Also, US is best prepared to handle Corona or other viruses. You guys are just fear mongering losers. pic.twitter.com/rbPLoJjudi

— GROUND BOAT (@ground_boat) February 29, 2020

That’s the information that media should be noting to reassure people and not spreading false information to panic people.

Indeed, according to Dr. Marc Siegel, professor of medicine at New York University, Fox News medical correspondent, and author of False Alarm: The Truth about the Epidemic of Fear, the administration is doing an excellent job on the problem, handling it better than he’s seen before.

Siegel spoke with SiriusXM’s Breitbart News on Sunday and he praised the people on the Trump team addressing the virus.

From Breitbart:

“I’ve been handling these emerging contagions for about 20 years now, and I have to tell you, I’ve never seen one handled better,” said Siegel of President Donald Trump’s approach to the coronavirus outbreak. [….]

“The task force are really top players,” said Siegel, noting the task force’s inclusion Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) infectious disease. Fauci is “one of the top infectious disease experts in the country,” he noted.

Siegel noted the coronavirus task force’s inclusion of CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield, a virologist, and Dr. Nancy Messonnier, an expert in vaccines.

“They’ve been doing exactly what they’re supposed to be doing,” said Siegel of the Trump administration’s measures towards protecting Americans from the coronavirus. “[They are] restricting travel, isolating patients who are sick and, trying to cut down on contact. It’s a very hard thing to do when people are pouring in from all over the world.”

Siegel explained that at the beginning of an outbreak of such a virus it may appear more deadly than it actually is because you are naturally hearing about the deaths, you’re not hearing about those who are not that ill, who may not even report it, because it isn’t consequential. That makes the mortality number appear higher than it actually is.

He also detailed that with time it becomes less deadly because people tend to develop immunity.

But Siegel warned, the virus reveals a problem – how deeply we are connected with China for so many things now, and how that puts us in a very bad position when that relationship is threatened or impaired.

“We’re relying on China for 90 percent of our ingredients for pharmaceuticals,” Siegel remarked. “That hopefully will change as a result of this because we’re going to end up with tremendous shortages of basic drugs, including antibiotics and blood pressure medication if this continues much longer in Wuhan.”

Siegel also scolded the media, “They’re certainly not helping because they’re hyping, and the hyping leads to hysteria.”