United States President Donald Trump told journalist Bob Woodward that he had intentionally downplayed the severity of the coronavirus in public comments in order to avoid triggering a panic, reported Bloomberg.

Author and associate editor for the Washington Post, Woodward interviewed Trump for his book ‘Rage’. CNN on Wednesday, published audio recordings of excerpts from the conversation. Trump says, “I wanted to always play it down, I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.”

Although Trump had publicly said that COVID-19 was no worse than the seasonal flu and would quickly go away, he admitted to Woodward in February 7 that the virus was transmitted through the air.

He said, “It goes through air, Bob, that’s always tougher than the touch. The air, you just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed.” He also said that it was more deadly “than even your strenuous flus.” On the same day, he had praised Chinese president Xi Jinping for his handling of the pandemic in a tweet.

In his book, Woodward says that National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien in a January 28 meeting had warned Trump that the coronavirus  “will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency.”

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told Bloomberg, “We want to keep the country calm, that’s what leaders do. The president never downplayed the virus.”