After months of downplaying the pandemic, President Donald Trump warned that the COVID-19 pandemic will “get worse before it gets better” during a Tuesday press conference.
“It will probably, unfortunately, get worse before it gets better. Something I don’t like saying about things, but that’s the way it is,” Trump said.
He also said he was “getting used to” wearing face masks and encouraged Americans to do the same, though he has frequently been photographed in groups not wearing one.
“Whether you like the mask or not, they have an impact. They will have an effect and we need everything we can get,” Trump said.
Still, the president — who said he gets tested for the virus every two or three days — sought to defend his response to the pandemic by continuing to blame China for the spread of COVID-19 and pushing forward his claim that the virus will somehow “just disappear” one day.
Over 141,800 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center. The U.S. also has the most COVID-19 cases globally with over 3.8 million people testing positive for the virus.