President Donald Trump suggested at Wednesday's coronavirus press briefing that COVID-19 might not be around in the fall — an idea that was quickly contradicted by the US's top infectious-disease expert.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said it's almost certain the coronavirus would still be around then.

Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had earlier said the outbreak would be more complicated to handle in the fall, when it would coincide with flu season.

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President Donald Trump suggested Wednesday that the novel coronavirus might be gone in the fall — and was quickly contradicted by the US's top infectious-disease expert.

"If we have embers of corona coupled with the flu, that's not going to be pleasant, but it's not going to be what we've gone through in any way, shape, or form," Trump said at Wednesday's coronavirus press briefing, according to The New York Times, where he also said, "It's also possible it doesn't come back at all."

Shortly afterward, responding to a different question, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said unequivocally that the coronavirus would still be around in the fall.

"We will have coronavirus in the fall," he said. "I am convinced of that."

Trump's early focus in the press briefing was to dispute a Washington Post report that said the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert Redfield, had suggested a "second wave" of the coronavirus could be "even more devastating" because it would coincide with flu season.

"There's a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through," Redfield told The Post.

"Next fall and winter, we're going to have two viruses circulating and we're going to have to distinguish between which is flu and which is the coronavirus," he added.

Redfield appeared at Wednesday's briefing and argued that he was not misquoted but that The Post's framing had overstated what he meant by "more difficult."

"I didn't say that this was going to be worse," he said. "I said that this was going to be more difficult."

Trump further tried to walk back Redfield's comments. "He was talking about the flu and corona coming together at the same time, and corona could be just some little flare-ups that we'll take care of," he said.

Fauci added that the coronavirus' impact in the fall depended on mitigation and containment efforts, but he agreed with Redfield's assertion that it could be more complicated in the fall.

The White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, told Fox News that Redfield was simply trying to encourage Americans to get a flu shot, CBS reported.

McEnany argued that Redfield's main point was: "The flu comes back in the fall. Be smart, American people."