The Trump administration’s development and distribution of coronavirus testing has been an unmitigated disaster, marked by technical issues, bureaucratic problems and lack of leadership. Don’t take our word for it — as Dr. Fauci said, “
Yeah, it is a failing, let’s admit it.”
Now, instead of taking responsibility, Trump is trying to pass blame on to states and hospitals who are begging for his help getting more tests. He mocked them, saying, “
We’re the federal government, we’re not supposed to stand on street corners doing testing.”
Consider this: the U.S. and South Korea had their first confirmed coronavirus case on the same day — January 20. But the U.S. remains far behind South Korea on per capita coronavirus testing. Why? Because Trump delayed efforts to expand coronavirus testing for nearly two months, at enormous cost to our country, wasting precious time needed to stop the spread of the virus.
First, Trump repeatedly downplayed the testing supply shortage, promising in early March that “anybody that wants a test can get a test” when that simply was not true. While he falsely claimed that “testing has been going very smooth,” labs faced a huge testing backlog and states still awaited testing equipment.
Trump’s failure to immediately address the testing shortage had dire consequences. Health experts and local officials confirmed that his botched rollout of testing prevented them from knowing the spread of the virus early, rendering it virtually impossible to contain.
Trump’s testing travesty is the genie that can’t be put back in the bottle. His failure to test allowed the virus to spread rapidly and undetected. Because wide scale testing was not available, more people are sick, more people have died, and there is exponentially higher disruption to our economy and lives.
Continue reading “Trump’s Testing Travesty”