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A message from Donald Trump has been flagged by social media giants Facebook and Twitter. After being treated for COVID-19, the president was discharged from Walter Reed Medical Center on Monday evening.
Since returning to the White House, Trump has taken to Twitter to send out a flurry of messages about various topics including the coronavirus pandemic.
The one message that caught everyone’s attention, however, was comparing COVID-19 to the common flu.
Trump exaggerated the number of flu-related deaths while saying we need to learn to live with the coronavirus just as we live with the flu in our every day lives.
The flu is estimated to kill between 12,000 and 61,000 people each year, while the coronavirus death toll in the United States has topped 210,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Trump’s tweet was removed by Facebook, according to TMZ, while also being flagged by Twitter.
“This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19,” Twitter commented. “However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.”
The coronavirus mainly comes from animals and a majority of those who were infected early either worked at or frequently visited the Huanan seafood wholesale market in Wuhan, according to The Guardian. The virus is similar to Severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (Mers).
The Wuhan coronavirus is transmitted from person to person through “droplet transmission.” That means an infected person can pass the virus by sneezing or coughing on another person as well as by direct contact.
While a majority of the cases have been detected in the United States and China — with more than 7.44 million confirmed cases and 210,000 deaths in the United States — it has now reached many countries around the world. It has also been confirmed in Italy, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and many other eastern countries.
