President Donald Trump has just announced Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the federal government’s response to coronavirus.
“I’m going to be announcing exactly right now,” Trump said from the White House press briefing room, that I’m putting “Vice President Mike Pence in charge” of coronavirus.
“And Mike will report back to me, but he’s got a certain talent for this.”
“They look at the Indiana model,” Trump said. “It’s been a great success. It’s been a tremendous model, in terms of health care.”
When Vice President Pence was Indiana Governor Mike Pence, he led his state into an HIV crisis.
“In late 2014, health officials belatedly became aware of an HIV outbreak in Scott County, Indiana,” The Nation reported in 2018. “With fewer than 24,000 people, this rural county rarely saw a single new case in a year, according to The New York Times. But by the time government agencies tried to stop the transmission of the virus a few months later, some 215 people had tested positive.”
“One man seemed responsible for needlessly letting the situation get out of control: Indiana’s then-Governor Mike Pence. In 2015, when the virus was seeming to rapidly move through networks of people who use intravenous drugs, even the reluctant local sheriff encouraged the governor to authorize a clean-needle exchange, a proven tool to reduce such an outbreak.”
That New York Times article was titled: “Mike Pence’s Response to H.I.V. Outbreak: Prayer, Then a Change of Heart.” It mentioned prayer five times.
Wednesday evening, President Trump told the American public Pence would now be in charge of keeping Americans safe.
Here’s how some are responding to news Pence is in charge of the federal government’s response to coronavirus.