President Donald Trump is covering his eyes again and telling people he doesn’t see a problem. This time, he told governors via conference call regarding the coronavirus Monday that he had not “heard about testing in weeks,” according to The New York Times. “We’ve tested more now than any nation in the world,” Trump said, according to the newspaper.” Even though he claimed he hadn’t “heard about testing being a problem,” he also reportedly said, ”we’ve got these great tests and we’re coming out with a faster one this week.”
So to recap, Trump sees nothing wrong with what the Times calls “a chronic lack of kits to screen people,” but just for kicks, his administration is coming out with new tests anyway. It’s no wonder why governors actually tracking COVID-19 response in their states called BS.
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock said in a recording The New York Times obtained that officials were trying to test those who have had contact with coronavirus patients but "we don't have adequate tests. Literally we are one day away, if we don’t get test kits from the C.D.C., that we wouldn’t be able to do testing in Montana,” Bullock told the Times. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee told CNN Sunday that “we have a desperate need for the testing kits.”
“We have been—had some considerable success building up the capacity to analyze the samples when they're taken. University of Washington has been successful. We have done some really good things there,” Inslee told CNN. “But we simply don't have the materials to take the test itself, some— things as simple as the swabs. When the little vials—when you put the swab in it to send it to the lab, it needs a particular medium in it to preserve it. We just do not have those simple things.”
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam told WWBT last week that his state needed more testing materials. “We’re all out there bidding literally against each other. Here in Virginia, we’re bidding against our own hospital systems, other states and the federal government,” he told the local station.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo explained the same observation in a briefing CNN recorded. He said every state is purchasing its own ventilators from China, but that competition is driving up the cost. "It's like being on eBay with 50 other states bidding on a ventilator," he said. The governor called for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be the purchasing agent for all 50 states, and supplies are distributed as needed. "Why would you create a situation where the 50 states are competing with each other and then the federal government through FEMA comes in and competes with the rest of it," Cuomo asked.
Still, when governors continued to express urgent needs for more supplies, the president only responded with: “We have a lot of planes coming in” and “Boeing gave us their big, monster cargo plane; it’s the biggest cargo plane in the world,” The New York Times reported. It’s as if an 8-year-old has been tasked with addressing a deadly pandemic.
