5 times Trump and US officials downplayed coronavirus as the administration struggled to prepare for the growing pandemic

U.S. Director of the Economic Council Larry Kudlow has taken heat for his misleading statements on the coronavirus, culminating in a CNBC interview last week where he told Americans to keep going to work because the virus was "relatively contained."

"I don't want to downplay anything," Kudlow said before effectively downplaying the true extent of the coronavirus and its momentum. "Worry about the effect on human beings, for heaven's sake. But I'm just saying, let's not overreact. In many ways, America should stay at work."

"We don't actually know what the magnitude of the virus is going to be, although frankly so far it looks relatively contained."

Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway took a similar approach to Kudlow in spinning the virus as "being contained" when fielding questions from reporters last week.

"It is being contained," Conway said when asked about a lack of available tests. "Do you not think it's being contained in this country?"

In perhaps the most notable instance during the White House's public credibility struggle amid the coronavirus outbreak so far, President Trump said the quiet part out loud.

When speaking about the Diamond Princess cruise ship being quarantined off the coast of California, Trump explicitly said he would prefer to juke the stats on COVID-19.

"I would rather because I like the numbers being where they are," Trump continued. "I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn't our fault. And it wasn't the fault of the people on the ship either, okay? It wasn't their fault either and they're mostly Americans. So, I can live either way with it. I'd rather have them stay on, personally."

In a meandering press conference last month, Trump rattled off a series of misleading claims about the coronavirus when establishing the task force and putting Pence in charge in late February.

One of the most eye popping parts of the press conference came when Trump said he learned of how tens of thousands of people die from the flu each year.

"That was shocking to me," he said before later going on another tangent arguing the coronavirus — which won't have a vaccine for at least a year — is like dealing with the flu.

"But when I mentioned the flu, I said — actually, I asked the various doctors. I said, 'Is this just like flu?' Because people die from the flu," Trump continued. "And this is very unusual. And it is a little bit different, but in some ways it's easier and in some ways it's a little bit tougher.

"But we have it so well under control. I mean, we really have done a very good job."