US President Donald Trump says America does not need and will never have mass coronavirus testing, despite warnings by experts that a comprehensive program is vital to getting life back to normal.
The inadequacy of testing for the virus has been a constant deficiency of the government’s handling of the pandemic from the start. Fixing this deficiency, as well as creating antibody testing for possible post-recovery immunity, may be the key to effectively reopening the economy while preventing a second wave of infections.
But the continued lack of a robust testing program, despite weeks of claims by Trump that the problem is fixed, is raising stark new questions about the White House’s management of the situation.
The President, whose leadership during these somber days is crucial to his reelection hopes, habitually shrugs off such questions. On Thursday, he celebrated the two-millionth coronavirus test on US soil, after White House officials administered coronavirus tests to reporters who attended his briefing.
Asked how the administration could contemplate reopening the economy without sufficient testing in place, Trump insisted the US system was “the best in the world.”.
Sources CNN