These announcements came after Trump and his top officials could not answer direct questions on Saturday and Sunday morning during the briefing and on various talk shows about the availability of new tests it hoped to unveil in coming weeks, or the timeframe for the federal government to get crucial N95 masks to health care workers.
“It is a dynamic and fluid operation,” Peter Gaynor, the head of FEMA said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” when pressed for an exact figure of the number of masks the government had. “The president appointed FEMA five days ago to manage federal operations. And since I have been here, we have been shipping continuously from federal warehouses and, again, connecting those governors that need supplies to those who have it in the commercial sector.”
White House officials note they are working overtime to combat the coronavirus outbreak, freeing up billions in government funding, clamping down on travel and tweaking regulations to expand health care options and ease the shipping of supplies to states and cities.
Trump and White House officials have argued that states and local public health leaders are also responsible for tracking down much-needed supplies. The federal government cannot solve all of these problems, officials have argued, and to assume so is a “socialist fantasy,” said one senior administration official.
The president put it more diplomatically on Sunday night. He said the federal government was there to support states, not dictate strategy. Yet he made this argument while continuing to make himself the face of the administration’s response.
Public health experts say the Trump administration is still playing catch-up after not responding aggressively in the early stages of the coronavirus. One former senior administration official said the U.S. government would have been in a much better situation if officials had started taking more assertive action in January or February. China reported its first death from the virus on Jan. 11.
The White House argues that it was taking action then, citing the decision to bar most travel from China and declare a public health emergency on Jan. 31.
Source: politico.com
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