“…announcement came after weeks of him insisting that states had plenty of tests…”
“Trump, under growing pressure to expand coronavirus testing as states move to reopen their economies, unveiled a new plan on Monday to ramp up the federal government’s help to states, but his proposal runs far short of what most public health experts say is necessary.”
“Trump’s announcement in the Rose Garden came after weeks of him insisting, inaccurately, that the nation’s testing capability “is fully sufficient to begin opening up the country,” as he said on April 18. Numerous public health experts say that is untrue, and Trump’s plan may do little to fix it.
“An administration official said the federal government aimed to give states the ability to test at least 2 percent of their populations per month, though the president did not use that figure and it was not in his written plan.
Instead, Trump and other officials with him in the Rose Garden said the United States would “double” the number of tests it had been doing.”
“These were not complaining people. They had everything they needed. They had their ventilators; they had their testing,” Trump said on Monday after a call with governors. “We’re getting them what they need.”
“In fact, governors have been complaining that they do not have nearly enough tests to give them the kind of information they need to make difficult decisions about reopening. They say they are competing with one another — and other countries — for the components that make up the testing kits, including nasal swabs and chemicals that detect whether the virus is present in a specimen.”
“Rather than one coordinated federal response, the Trump administration has been engaging on an ad hoc basis as states take the lead.”
(https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/27/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-testing.html)
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