The failure of the United States to stem the ferocious spread of the coronavirus was on stark display Friday as top administration health officials appearing before a House panel acknowledged lengthy testing delays and a hodgepodge of state policies that protected no more than half the country with restrictions aimed at stopping more infections.
Testimony before the House select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis, which is looking into the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic, was highly partisan. Republican members defended the approach advanced by the White House, and Democrats tore into it, saying that there still is no national strategy and that the death toll is soaring as a result.
With about 4.5 million Americans infected with the novel coronavirus and about 150,000 dead — a toll that grows by 1,000 people or more every day — tempers flared as the health officials found themselves in the middle of heated debates over the efficacy of a controversial drug, the wisdom of reopening schools and ways to prevent the virus from racing through the country. Continue reading.