CNN presenter Jake Tapper took the undersecretary of health, Admiral Brett Giroir, to the task of solving ongoing problems with coronavirus testing, and asked the coronavirus testing czar if he is “afraid” of raising these issues. President Donald Trump.
During a controversial 20-minute interview on CNN State of the union On Sunday morning, Tapper repeatedly pressured Giroir in the weeklong delays in the coronavirus test results that Americans are experiencing.
“Are you happy with the evidence right now?” Tapper asked, prompting Giroir to say “he will never be happy” until they have the pandemic under control.
While acknowledging that the tests are not yet where they should be, the HHS official continued to promote the progress the administration has made in recent months, adding that half of the tests conducted have response times of less than 24 hours.
“The delays most people talk about occur in large commercial laboratories that do about half the tests in the country,” he said. “Now the data is, the average response time is 4.27 days.”
The CNN presenter cited criticism from former acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney about the administration’s handling of the pandemic, specifically poor test response times. In an op-ed earlier this month, Mulvaney said the long wait for results was “inexcusable” when citing his own family’s experience.
At the same time, Tapper repeatedly criticized Giroir for the President’s promises when it came to testing and obtaining the virus, which has now killed nearly 150,000 Americans, under control.
“In March, President Trump falsely said, anyone who wants a test can get tested,” the veteran presenter pressed. “At what point will it be true, sir, that anyone who wants an exam will be able to get one with a quick change to be effective? When will that be true?
Meanwhile, Giroir said it is “true now” that anyone who “needs an exam can take an exam,” adding that he is “very confident” that response times will decrease this week based on the progress they have made.
Tapper also lobbied the public health official about the administration’s use of the Defense Production Act to increase production of masks and fans, wondering out loud why the White House was not using it more heavily in tests. This prompted the CNN host to ask if this was due to an unwillingness to upset the president.
“There seems to be this reluctance to put pressure on the president to do what he needs to do to speed up testing,” Tapper said. “I know you’re under the mistaken impression that more evidence is bad and makes it look bad, which, as you know, is completely untrue.”
“And I wonder if you and others are just afraid to do this because they don’t want to bother you, they’re afraid to ask you to do what you have to do to invoke the DPA to compel federal labs to catch up to where we need to be to that we can isolate the virus, as you know, “he added. “Are you afraid to let President Trump know this because it will upset him?”
Giroir, for his part, denied that this was the case, claiming that difficult issues and problems are raised openly with Trump and the administration.
“Everyone in the administration understands the importance of testing,” he said. “No one in the task force is afraid to mention anything to the vice president or the president.”
“Every time I’ve met with the president, he’s been listening to all the data, evaluating it, understanding it,” Giroir continued. “I meet with the vice president almost every day. No one is trying to stop testing in this country. No one has told me to do that. We want more, we want better, we want faster. “
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