Eric Trump says coronavirus is a ploy to stop his father's campaign rallies and will 'magically' disappear after election day

• Eric Trump claimed that the coronavirus will "magically all of a sudden go away and disappear" after the presidential election on November 3 during an appearance on Fox News Saturday.
• Eric Trump's comments come as his brother, Trump Jr., also said that the coronavirus — which has killed more than 88,000 Americans — was invented by the Democrats to cancel his father's campaign rallies.
• Public health experts — including some in the Trump administration — believe there will actually be a larger, even more deadly, second wave of the outbreak in the fall and winter.
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The coronavirus will "magically, all of a sudden go away and disappear and everyone will be able to reopen" after election day, according to Eric Trump.

The president's middle son accused the Democratic Party of engineering the coronavirus pandemic to keep his father from hosting campaign rallies, he said during an appearance on Fox News Saturday. According to Eric Trump, the virus will disappear after election day, November 3.

However, the comments stand in direct opposition to statements from public health officials on both the origin and the trajectory of the virus. Most anticipate a larger second wave of new coronavirus infections in the fall and winter.

"They think they're taking away Donald Trump's greatest tool, which is to go into an arena and fill it with 50,000 people every time," Eric Trump, who is the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, told Fox News' Jeanine Pirro.

—Jeanine Pirro (@JudgeJeanine) May 17, 2020

In reality, the President's campaign events do not draw 50,000 people, and Trump has been repeatedly caught mistaking his attendance numbers. In February, President Trump said 50,000 people attended a rally held in a New Hampshire arena with a maximum capacity of 11,700, Newsweek reported.

The novel coronavirus has infected more than 1.4 million Americans and killed 88,000. Meanwhile, over the past two months, Fox News has downplayed death totals and pushed back against social distancing guidelines. In recent days the conservative news network reduced its coverage of the pandemic by 20% to focus on anti-lockdown protests and the president's false claims about the outbreak, Business Insider's Ellen Cranley reported.

The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

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