Donald Trump Compares Coronavirus to the Flu in Tweet That Sets off Social Media

President Donald Trump is continuing to downplay the severity of the coronavirus pandemic following his own diagnosis that left him hospitalized for three nights. Just hours after being discharged from Walter Reed Medical Center, the president, on Twitter, encouraged Americans to "live with" the virus while comparing it to the flu.

Shared Tuesday morning, Trump, reminding social media that flu season is just around the corner, wrote that "many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu." He asked, "are we going to close down our Country?" before declaring, "we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and as reported by WXYZ, it is estimated that between 12,000 and 61,000 die from the flu each year. In 1968, however, an estimated 100,000 people died of the flu. In comparison, in the United States, coronavirus deaths have surpassed 200,000, with more than 7.4 million positive cases.

The president's remarks came just after he again downplayed the pandemic while speaking from the White House upon his return home Monday night. Addressing the American people, the president said that the American people cannot let the pandemic "dominate your lives" and encouraged them to "get out there." He told them, "you're gonna beat it," citing improvements in medicine. Just as those comments had, his Tuesday morning tweet immediately set off social media.