Admiral Brett Giroir, the undersecretary of Health and Human Services who is leading the administration’s coronavirus testing efforts, said Sunday that no one in the White House coronavirus task force is afraid to pressure President Trump on the need to expand tests.
“Everyone in the administration understands the importance of testing. No one in the task force is afraid to mention anything to the vice president or the president,” Giroir said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday.
“Every time I have met the president, he has been listening to all the data, he assesses that he understands it … no one is trying to stop testing in this country. In fact, no one has told me to do that. We want more, we want better, we want faster, “he added.
CNN’s Jake Tapper pressured Giroir in an apparent reluctance for officials to pressure Trump to speed up testing, and resistance to further invoking the Defense Production Act to increase the hiring of laboratories and the manufacture of laboratory equipment to help with the speed of testing.
While testing has increased across the country, coronavirus outbreaks across the country are putting pressure on testing ability. Wait times for test results have grown to days, or even weeks, hampering responses from health officials and making efforts to trace contacts of confirmed cases almost pointlessly.
Giroir stated that DPA is not necessary to help laboratories.
“We look for every opportunity to invoke DPA, DPA is not a magic tool. It doesn’t violate the laws of physics, you can’t recreate something out of nothing. Most companies don’t need DPA in them.” said.
Giroir also said that “he will never be happy” until the crisis is “under control,” but continued to defend the administration’s efforts.
“We are not going to stop our testing efforts until it’s really where we want it to be with fast response times,” said Giroir.
Tapper also asked Giroir when Trump’s March comments, stating that anyone who wants an exam can get one, will be true.
“What is true now is that anyone who needs a test can get one,” Giroir replied.
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