The moment he uses that word, his impartiality goes out of the window. Viruses adapt, the science adapts. You give your best information at that point and you don't want to muddy the public with confidence intervals and all that.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/24/health/herd-immunity-covi...
So he lied. Plain and simple.
I used that word because it's the truth, even though it's strong because sugarcoating the truth is lying. Using the term "sugarcoating" is, in fact, trying to sugarcoat the fact that sugarcoating is lying!