Although he’s previously come under fire for outlandish remarks to the American people, Donald Trump insisted that the novel coronavirus will somehow disappear–even in the absence of any vaccine to combat it.

With thousands of Americans perishing from the ongoing pandemic, Trump chose to promote the NFL’s upcoming schedule.

In recent weeks, Trump has been heavily criticized for making reckless remarks to the American people, from promoting an unproven malaria medication as a cure-all for COVID-19, to dangerous comments about taking household disinfectants and bleach internally.

In remarks with reporters Friday, Trump said that a vaccine won’t be necessary.

“Well, I feel about vaccines like I feel about tests. This is going to go away without a vaccine. It’s going to go away and we’re not going to see it again, hopefully, after a period of time. You may have some flare-ups, and I guess I would expect that, sometime in the fall you’ll have flare-ups maybe, maybe not,” he said. “But according to what a lot of people say, you probably will. We’ll be able to put them out. You may have some flare-ups next year but eventually it’s going to be gone. It’s going to be gone.

“You know, there are some viruses and flus that came and they went for a vaccine, they never found a vaccine, and they disappeared, they’ve never shown up again. They die, too, like everything else,” Trump said. “They die, too. So whether we do or not, I think great progress is being made by Johnson & Johnson, by Oxford and some others. NYU I see is very advanced. But if you don’t get it, this is going to go away at some point.”

What Trump said isn’t true.

Public health professionals have consistently been clear that the only solution for the novel coronavirus will be a vaccine, which is under development and could take another year or more to make available and that some form of social distancing will be needed until then.

There have been more than 3.9 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus worldwide. The virus has killed more than 270,000.

In the United States, there have been about 1.3 million reported cases, including 77,034 deaths, according to the most recent figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

What Trump chose to get enthused about was forthcoming sports.

“Well, it’s not even good news, it’s great news. And I hope that happens with other sports, too. And UFC is having a big fight this weekend, which has become a hot sport and which is going to be in Florida. And that’s going to be great,” he said. “I think they’re not going to have people initially, they will have empty but it probably works with the bright arena right in the middle and the seats are dark. I think it might work for fighting. But the NFL is doing it. I think it’s a great decision.

“Keep the season going. It’s a shame, you know, when 50 years from now you look at records and you see a dead season, it’s a shame. I don’t know what basketball is going to do. I spoke with all of the commissioners on numerous occasions. But no, we want to get sports back in our country. We have to get them back. And it’s going to happen, but the NFL took a great step and they mean business, too,” he added. “They are going to do it, they have all sorts of contingency plans in case something happens and they will move games from one location to another. They’ll do it and that’s a great thing they are doing.”

Meghan McCain, co-host of the ABC daily talk show The View, called Trump and his administration out for their misinformation.

“I think part of the problem is there’s just so much misinformation flying around all the time, and it’s hard to believe that the people in power have our best interest at mind, which is really heartbreaking for me to say to all of you, but I do feel that way,” she said.

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