Two top US health officials on Sunday disputed a claim by President Donald Trump that federal data on COVID-19 cases and deaths in the United States is overblown, and both expressed optimism that the pace of vaccinations is picking up, Reuters reported.

“The deaths are real deaths,” Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on ABC News, adding that jam-packed hospitals and stressed-out healthcare workers are “not fake. That’s real.”

Fauci and US Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who appeared on CNN, defended the accuracy of coronavirus data published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after Trump attacked the agency’s tabulation methods.

“From a public health perspective, I have no reason to doubt those numbers and I think people need to be very aware that it’s not just about the deaths,” Adams said. “It’s about the hospitalizations, the capacity.”

Fauci and Adams expressed optimism that the pace of vaccinating Americans against the virus is accelerating after a slow start.