From the start of what would become the coronavirus pandemic President Donald Trump has worked to ensure desperately needed testing would not be conducted. Reports last month show not only did Trump not push HHS and the CDC to make testing a priority, he admitted he wanted as little testing as possible so the “numbers” would look good – and catapult him to re-election victory. Or so he thought.
Trump infamously also claimed anyone who wants a test can get one.
“Anybody that needs a test gets a test. We – they’re there. They have the tests. And the tests are beautiful,” the President lied on Match 7.
And now he’s lying once again.
Late Monday morning Trump falsely charged Democrats with “playing a very dangerous political game” by demanding a massive ramp up in testing. Trump wants the entire nation to re-open for business despite there being few if any safeguards in place that would prevent a surge in coronavirus infections, illnesses, and deaths if that happens.
Experts at Harvard say the U.S. needs increase testing to between 500,000 to 700,000 tests per day, while experts at MIT say three million tests per day must be performed and processed before it is safe to re-open the country.
Trump has repeatedly claimed there’s no problem with the testing, even bragging that the U.S. has tested more people than any other country while ignoring the fact that the U.S. has the third-highest population in the world.
What is important is number of tests per capita, and there the U.S. ranks a dismal 43rd or so.
But here’s the President accidentally admitting that testing is a problem, while trying to scorch the left (and medical experts, and the CDC) for wanting more ventilators that have been needed – so far.
“Last month all you heard from the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats was, ‘Ventilators, Ventilators, Ventilators.’ They screamed it loud & clear, & thought they had us cold, even though it was the State’s task,” he falsely claimed.
Claiming ventilators are the sole responsibility of the states is a lie, as is his assertion that the call for ventilators was made up to make the Trump administration appear unprepared. The numbers of ventilators needed were based on CDC projections.
“But everyone got their V’s, with many to spare. Now they scream, ‘Testing, Testing, Testing,’ again playing a very dangerous political game,” Trump accused, wrongly. Testing is the critical component that’s missing, and there’s no federal plan to fix it.
“States, not the Federal Government, should be doing the Testing,” Trump again charged, falsely. “But we will work with the Governors and get it done,” he added, admitting that it has not been done.
“This is easy compared to the fast production of thousands of complex Ventilators!”
Testing will not be easy, and is not a one-time act. Anyone can be tested one day, be negative, then get infected the next day.
Trump appears to not have considered any of the critical scenarios surrounding them management of the pandemic.
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