Day 1,139: Trump administration covering up coronavirus data and information
During times of national crises, information is paramount. When health and treatment details are critical, there are life and death consequences to gaps in time and information.
Donald Trump and his administration are presently playing games with millions of Americans’ lives by refusing to disclose information about the coronavirus.
For instance, Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. fight against the disease, his VP, Mike Pence, held a briefing for reporters Tuesday. Except reporters were barred from using audio or video to record and report on the briefing.
Information should be easy to be received by the American public, and audio and visual are the best methods for communication. Instead, reporters had to try and transcribe the briefing in real time, despite better alternatives being readily available.
Meanwhile, at Health and Human Services, the finger-pointing is rampant, as the CDC has its own problems.
Even as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention takes blame for testing delays that may have led to hundreds of Americans being infected with the coronavirus, officials inside the health agency and the White House are increasingly pointing the finger at one leader: Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who they say failed to coordinate the response, as agency chiefs waited for instructions that came too late and other deputies were largely cut out of the process.
“This was a management failure,” said one administration official, charging that Azar didn’t adequately plan for a worst-case coronavirus scenario that’s grown more likely by the day — even though Azar touted his bona fides as a veteran of the George W. Bush administration, where he helped fight crises like SARS and an anthrax scare. “CDC and FDA should have been working hand in hand to get Plan B, Plan C and Plan D ready to go,” the official said.
“The administration’s response has been reactive, not proactive,” added a former HHS official. “A lot of what has happened has been driven by outside pressure,” like public health labs sounding the alarm that they were unable to perform the CDC’s tests.
The CDC is up to its own shenanigans , as they are suddenly hiding how many people have been tested for the coronavirus.
The CDC seems to have sent out contaminated test kits and are also rejecting help from other federal agencies.
What is going on is a failure across the board, starting with Trump and trickling down throughout his administration. It’s simultaneously been both a disaster and a cover-up. Trump and his team’s actions will surely cost more Americans their lives over the coming days and weeks.
1,139 days in, 323 to go
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