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Trump Says White House Coronavirus Model Overestimated Number Of Hospital Beds Needed

REUTERS/Tom Brenner

William Davis Contributor
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President Donald Trump said Sunday that the coronavirus model the White House has been using overestimated the number of beds that would be needed to treat patients.

The president admitted that the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) model his administration was using has been off on the number of hospital beds needed, but did not say whether he would be open to changing the type of models he’s been using. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: How Trump’s Extended Coronavirus Guidelines Could Tank The Economy)

“It’s turning out that we need less hospital beds,” Trump said at the coronavirus task force’s daily press briefing. “We may have models, but we’ve been sort of saying that. In New York, we were saying we think you’re gonna need less.”

New York has become the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., but has not faced the hospital shortages projected by the IHME model, which did account for social distancing in its original projections. (RELATED: FLASHBACK: Jan. 21: Fauci Says Coronavirus ‘Not A Major Threat’ To U.S.)

The model projected that New York would need 65,400 hospital beds by April 4, but only 15,905 were actually used, according to former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson.