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AP FACT CHECK: Trump Gets a Reality Check on Coronavirus

   WASHINGTON - For weeks, President Donald Trump carved out a trail of
   groundless assurances about the coronavirus pandemic as health
   officials, governors and local officials sounded alarm about what was
   coming -- and already here. That sunlit trail now has hit a wall.

   On Sunday, Trump appeared to be bracing the country for a grim death
   toll as he accepted the advice of public-health experts and gave up on
   letting federal social-distance guidelines lapse Monday as initially
   intended. In doing so, he acknowledged what his officials had told him
   -- that 100,000 people or many more could die from COVID-19 in the U.S.
   before it's over. And he recognized it won't be over for some time.

   A look at some of his statements over the past week as a reality check
   caught up with him:

   NATIONAL SHUTDOWN

   TRUMP: "I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to
   go by Easter." -- Fox News virtual town hall Tuesday.

   TRUMP: "We have to open up our country, I'm sorry." -- conference call
   with governors Tuesday, audio of which was obtained by The Associated
   Press.

   THE FACTS: The public-health community, governors and many others knew
   when they heard Trump say this that a revival by Easter, April 12, was
   not going to happen. On Sunday, Trump extended the federal government's
   restrictive distancing recommendations until April 30. That may not be
   enough, either.

   To be clear, the federal government did not close down the country and
   won't be reopening it. Restrictions on public gatherings, workplaces,
   mobility, store operations, schools and more were ordered by states and
   communities, not Washington. The federal government has imposed border
   controls; otherwise its social-distancing actions are mostly
   recommendations, not mandates.

   On Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health
   cautioned that the virus outbreak could ultimately kill 100,000 to
   200,000 Americans with possibly millions infected as it continues to
   surge across the nation. Trump shifted his tone and backed off trying
   to rush the country back to work and to normalcy in a matter of a few
   weeks.

   TRUMP: "I mean, we have never closed the country before, and we have
   had some pretty bad flus, and we have had some pretty bad viruses." --
   Fox News virtual town hall Tuesday.

   THE FACTS: He's making a bad comparison.

   The new coronavirus is not the same as the annual flu because it's a
   disease that hadn't been seen before in humans. For that reason, human
   populations lack immunity to the virus. It can spread unchecked, except
   by measures such as social distancing.

   VIRUS TESTING

   TRUMP: "Over an eight day span, the United States now does more testing
   than what South Korea (which has been a very successful tester) does
   over an eight week span. Great job!" -- tweet Wednesday.

   THE FACTS: The comparison with South Korea isn't very illuminating. The
   U.S. has more than six times the population of South Korea, about 330
   million compared with about 50 million. Yet South Korea is testing
   about four times more people as a percentage of its population.

   The two countries are also at different stages in their outbreaks.
   Daily case counts are rapidly rising in the U.S., where the coronavirus
   took hold later on. In South Korea, the curve has been leveling off.

   The U.S. count is going up fast in part because the virus is spreading
   and in part because of a test shortage that lasted weeks, as well as a
   backlog in laboratories reporting results. In that time, Trump falsely
   asserted that anyone who wanted or needed to get the test could.

   South Korea's coronavirus response has been marked by an emphasis on
   widespread testing that earned global praise. But even in that country
   the government is stressing social distancing measures because of
   worries the outbreak could pick up again.

   HOW DEADLY?

   TRUMP on the death rate from COVID-19: "I think it's substantially
   below 1%, because the people don't report." -- Fox News interview
   Thursday.

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