House Democrat Busts Trump For Cover Up Of US Coronavirus Cases

As the coronoavirus is reported to have infected 92,823 people with 3,164 deaths, Representative Mark Pocan (D-WI) busted the Trump CDC for what appears to be a cover-up after the CDC removed public data on the number of US patients dying from and being tested for the coronavirus.

Read About Ivanka Trump's Plotting To Return To The White House On THE DAILY

“Americans are dying… We deserve to know how many people have been tested for, or who have died from, COVID-19,” the Democrat wrote, demanding some answers to the growing pandemic and public health concern in a letter to CDC Director Robert Redfield.

Many patients are unable to get tested, like this Seattle woman detailed on Twitter.

The tests were also messed up. Faulty. Some of the kits “sent to U.S. states and at least 30 countries produced ‘inconclusive’ results due to a flawed component.” And only three states had them.

It was only four days ago – a month after doctors were raising the red flag – that the CDC finally announced the kits were ready.

The CDC also limited the criterion to be tested to such a degree as to mislead people about who should be tested.

It also highlights how the CDC’s narrow testing protocols, combined with the agency’s continued delays in getting functional coronavirus test kits to state and local public health agencies, have hindered the public health system’s ability to respond to the outbreak.

The bottom line is: When you don’t test, you don’t prevent.

Pocan is hardly the first to note the life-threatening impact of what seems to be a deliberate Trump administration cover up:

Just to list just a few ways (and there are so many) this has gone sideways and could have been avoided: Trump’s political people overruled the recommendations of the CDC, testing kits weren’t made available, there was a deliberate cutting of programs designed to prevent a pandemic around the world as well as cutting of experts and funding for pandemics, and as always, an eye on how this all impacts Trump politically — first and foremost.

Republicans are selling the coronavirus panic as a hoax designed to hurt Trump. The President blames Democrats, as he always does. We are just awaiting Trump finding a way to blame Obama for Trump dismantling Obama-era programs designed to protect the globe from a pandemic.

Trump himself doesn’t even understand the most basic, readily available information on the coronavirus, and had to be told that the regular flu vaccine won’t work on it. This should come as no surprise, however, as Trump still does not actually know what a vaccine is, and on Tuesday he again conflated vaccine with cure.

The problem with covering up reality is we can only manage viruses like this when we have information. Our government should be a source of reliable information, but it is modeling itself more on Putin’s propaganda machine, where even health information is political and put through the flattery machine.

People should not be surprised that the man who couldn’t read Obama’s birth certificate and who imagined he saw people cheering on 9/11 isn’t great at facts or science. This is just another reason why we shouldn’t have conspiracy theorists in positions of power.

Sarah Jones

Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily newsletter podcast here.

Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.

Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Connect with Sarah on Post,  Mastodon @PoliticusSarah@Journa.Host, & Twitter.