WHAT PRESIDENT TRUMP SAYS
“The No. 1 priority is the health and safety of the American people,” Trump said at a Wednesday evening news conference. “The risk remains low, but we are ready to adapt and do whatever we have to.”
President Donald Trump has appointed Vice President Mike Pence to be in charge of the United States response to the coronavirus outbreak, he announced at a Wednesday evening press conference.
“I’m going to be putting our vice president, Mike Pence, in charge. And Mike will be working with the professionals,” Trump said during a rare appearance in the White House briefing room.
Earlier Wednesday, a spokesman denied that Trump was looking to hire a White House coronavirus coordinator, saying the president was “pleased” with the work that Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar was doing as the head of a task force overseeing the response.
“The No. 1 priority is the health and safety of the American people,” Trump said Wednesday night. “The risk remains low, but we are ready to adapt and do whatever we have to.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer seeks $8.5 billion to fight the virus in the U.S., while Trump said he has requested $2.5 billion. Trump said he’ll take whatever funds are appropriated, but expressed hope that the $8.5 billion would not be needed.
Azar said Trump’s early travel restrictions for nonU.S. citizens coming from China have been beneficial, and the early containment efforts have been successful.
Trump also cited a study that said the United States is the country best-prepared to deal with a virus outbreak.
On Wednesday morning, Trump condemned the news media, saying journalists were making the coronavirus “look as bad as possible.” Contradicting some government experts who see the coronavirus threat as only beginning, he is still convinced that, like the flu, the new coronavirus will dissipate with warmer, more humid weather.
The possibility of the virus spreading in the United States comes as the administration grapples with cuts and personnel moves that critics say have weakened the system for dealing with such health crises. The White House in 2018 eliminated a dedicated position on the National Security Council to coordinate pandemic response, the same year that the Trump administration dramatically narrowed its epidemiological work from 49 countries to 10.
In November, a task force at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which included five current and former Republican senators and House members, warned that “the United States remains woefully ill-prepared to respond to global health security threats” and recommended the reinstatement of an NSC coordinator and a recommitment of funding and attention to global health programs.
Instead, the president’s budget request this month for the fiscal year that begins in October would slash the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s budget by almost 16% and the Health and Human Services Department’s by almost 10%. The proposal’s $3 billion in cuts to global health programs included a 53% cut to the World Health Organization and a 75% cut to the Pan American Health Organization.