Just days after Donald Trump tapped Mike Pence to lead the coronavirus response effort, the vice president is holding fundraisers instead of meeting with health officials.
As The Washington Post reported late Friday, “Democrats expressed skepticism that they are getting straight answers and criticized Vice President Pence, who was put in charge of the administration’s response Wednesday night, for heading to Florida on Friday for a fundraiser.”
“They’re considering this so urgent they put someone in charge of it that is in my state for a fundraiser rather than sitting down with our public health officials,” Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said, according to the report.
Pence’s apparent disinterest in leading a response to this global health emergency comes as the president is pushing the dangerous lie that the coronavirus itself is a myth.
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During a Friday night rally in South Carolina, Trump told a mob of his adoring supporters that the outbreak is a “new hoax.”
Here’s Trump at his rally tonight in South Carolina dismissing worries about the coronavirus as the “new hoax†pic.twitter.com/Q58d7dI1cb
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 29, 2020
Meanwhile, the virus is spreading In America
As the president and vice president attend political events and call the coronavirus a hoax, it continues to spread in the United States.
In addition to the two community-spread cases of the coronavirus in California, two more were reported in Oregon and Washington on Friday, meaning the virus is not a hoax, regardless of what Trump tells his rally crowds.
Meanwhile, as CNN reports, the World Health Organization (WHO) has elevated the risk of global coronavirus spread from “high” to “very high.”
Without leaders at the top committed to taking on this global health crisis, it’s going to get worse and put more American lives at risk.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
