These are all statements reviewed by Politifact, and rated on the basis of True, mostly  true, mostly false, false or pants on fire.  All these quotes come from elected officials and have been made in the last 3 weeks.  You can also guess who made the comments or their party (Republican or Democrat).

1. 1. Republicans “have shown themselves willing to cut millions off their health insurance and eliminate preexisting condition protections for millions more, even in the middle of this public health crisis.”
   2. “We’ve tested more than every country combined.”
   3. “Some states, like Montana and Nebraska, are getting more than $300,000 in federal stimulus money per reported COVID-19 case. New York is the hardest-hit state and yet we are getting only about $12,000 per case.”
   4.  Texas “either is near the bottom or at the very bottom when it comes to testing per capita.”
   5. “Hundreds and hundreds of labs are ready, willing, and able.”
   6. “Until this week, they [OSHA] weren’t even enforcing these guidelines [for coronavirus]. Still today, OSHA is not specifying which rules employees must follow or how to keep their workers safe and healthy.”
   7. “This is COVID-19, not COVID-1, folks. And so you would think the people charged with the World Health Organization facts and figures would be on top of that.”

Answers:

1. True, Barrack Obama,  April 14, 2020:  The White House and congressional Republicans have maintained support for a lawsuit that would dismantle the Affordable Care Act ― the law that prohibits charging people more for health coverage because of preexisting conditions and that extended insurance to millions of previously uninsured Americans.  Striking down the ACA would make people even more vulnerable to COVID-19 harm, experts say, citing potential medical and financial damage.
2. Pants on Fire, Donald Trump, April 20, 2020: The United States has performed more coronavirus tests than any other single country. But it has not done more “than all major countries combined.”  The raw tally of coronavirus tests isn’t a good metric, experts say. When you control for population, or consider other meaningful statistics, the United States is still far behind on its COVID-19 response.
3. Mostly True, Andrew Cuomo, April 12, 2020.  In the first round of federal funding for health care providers, New York state has received far less money than less-affected states, according to an analysis by Kaiser Health News.  Cuomo addressed only one segment of the stimulus aid, and glossed over the distinction between states and the health care providers within those states. The funding source he tweeted about sends money directly to providers, not to states.  Subsequent batches of funding are supposed to favor states with higher coronavirus case loads.
4. True, Veronica Escobar, Representative to Congress from Texas, April 22, 2020.  Texas is one of the states that has administered the fewest coronavirus tests per capita. At the time of Escobar’s statement, only Virginia and Kansas had tested fewer people per capita than Texas.
5.  False, Donald Trump, April 22, 2020.  Donald Trump exaggerates number of untapped coronavirus testing labs.  The president said the White House has a list that shows many untapped labs are ready to go to do more testing. Labs exist, but how many are ready to handle the patient specimens sent to them is unknown.
6. True, Joe Biden, April 15, 2020, OSHA released coronavirus guidelines in early March, but they function as suggestions or recommendations and are not enforceable.  OSHA then released enforcement instructions in mid-April with a focus on enforcing general, existing safety standards and has not told inspectors how to apply those standards to the current crisis. During an April 15 virtual town hall meeting with front-line workers, former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democrats’ presumptive nominee for the White House, was asked by a meat processing worker what he would do to protect workers like her from COVID-19.  “We lost a co-worker at my plant because there is no regulation to protect meat chain employees,” said Safaa Elzakzoky, who is also a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. “We can’t work safely and get people the meat that they need to eat. So what would you do to protect a worker like my friend who just died?” In his response, Biden called attention to steps taken by the Obama administration during the H1N1 outbreak and criticized the Trump administration. He focused on “failures” by the Labor Department and its Occupational Safety and Health Administration to use regulatory powers to protect workers, including OSHA’s lack of action in enforcing specific worker safety guidelines related to COVID-19.
7. False, Kellyanne Conway, April 15, 2020, Kellyanne Conway misleads on name for COVID-19, says it’s ‘not COVID-1’.  Conway suggested that the World Health Organization should have been on top of the novel coronavirus earlier on because “this is COVID-19, not COVID-1.” COVID-19 stands for “coronavirus disease 2019” — reflecting the year in which the disease was first identified. Conway later said on Twitter that she knows why the disease is named as such.

I did not include any statements from Facebook or social media bloggers, because so many postings are false.   It is very sad to see all the unjustified bashing of the World Health Organization, because we need them desperately to distributef vaccines and medicines in the future.

Stay tuned and safe,

Dave

www.politifact.com