John Oliver slams Trump’s coronavirus response on audience-less episode of ‘Last Week Tonight’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_066dEkycr4

John Oliver wasn’t at his usual desk for Sunday’s episode of “Last Week Tonight.” Instead, he taped from a new location without an audience after employees in the CBS Broadcast Center tested positive for coronavirus.

Oliver spent the show focused on providing relevant information about the disease and combatting what he called “misinformation” from President Donald Trump.

Oliver used his standard technique of playing video clips of Trump’s public statements and refuting them, because, as he put it: “Nothing is fine here. The president’s response has sadly been characterized by disorganization and lies.”

“Despite Trump repeatedly claiming otherwise, tests are still not available in most places to those who need them,” Oliver said. “Which means that we can’t yet properly track the virus or know how quickly it is spreading. That is not only catastrophic — because we are having to fly blind in fighting this pandemic — it’s also deeply frustrating, especially when you see how countries like South Korea ramped up their testing capabilities.”

After several more minutes of wryly poking fun at Trump’s public statements, Oliver got serious, telling viewers it would be best to stop listening to the president for their own safety.

“This is clearly both frustrating and extremely unnerving, and it is actively contributing to a sense of confusion in the country at the moment,” Oliver said, of Trump’s public misstatements. “At this point, it might really be best to put the president aside — don’t worry, there is going to be ample time to be utterly furious with him later — but the fact is, even though this should not be the case, it seems we’re going to be a little bit on our own here.”

Get Boston.com’s e-mail alerts: