Trump Tries to Tie Obama to C.D.C.’s ‘Inadequate’ Testing System
Maggie Haberman and Noah Weiland
President Trump on Friday again claimed that his response to the coronavirus was hindered by the Obama administration, which left office three years ago.
© Doug Mills/The New York Times President Trump at the White House on Thursday.
Mr. Trump attacked Mr. Obama, who served with Mr. Trump’s likely Democratic challenger, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., in two posts on Twitter.
“For decades the @CDCgov looked at, and studied, its testing system, but did nothing about it,” Mr. Trump wrote. “It would always be inadequate and slow for a large scale pandemic, but a pandemic would never happen, they hoped. President Obama made changes that only complicated things further.
“Their response to H1N1 Swine Flu was a full scale disaster, with thousands dying, and nothing meaningful done to fix the testing problem, until now,” he continued. “The changes have been made and testing will soon happen on a very large scale basis. All Red Tape has been cut, ready to go!” he wrote.
Mr. Trump was not specific about what changes President Barack Obama made to “complicate things further,” but at least one regulatory change previously discussed by Mr. Trump and his C.D.C. director was never put into effect. Mr. Trump had leveled that criticism last week.
A spokesman for Mr. Obama declined to comment.
In his tweet, Mr. Trump may have been referring to actions taken by the Food and Drug Administration during the Obama administration, when the agency proposed regulating a high-risk lab-developed test with a premarket review. But that idea applied outside of emergency situations and was never finalized.
The F.D.A. took the position that during a public health emergency, nongovernment labs should come to it before doing tests. But at any time, the agency was prepared to suspend that practice, as it did recently when it gave laboratories and hospitals around the country the go-ahead to conduct tests that had been limited to those analyzed by the C.D.C.
Meanwhile, an Australian official who posed with Ivanka Trump and Attorney General William P. Barr on March 6 has tested positive for the coronavirus, officials said. Peter Dutton, the home affairs minister, said in a statement that he woke up with a fever and a sore throat, and later a test confirmed the diagnosis.
Mr. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence met over the weekend with a Brazilian official at the president’s private club, Mar-a-Lago, who later tested positive for the virus. After the revelation on Thursday, White House officials said the president would not be tested.
The White House has said that Mr. Trump barely interacted with the Brazilian man, despite a photo of them standing next to one another, and that the president has not been tested. Still, the guidelines from health officials suggest that Mr. Trump should be in a self-quarantine because of the exposure.
On Thursday, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, a member of the administration’s coronavirus task force, refused to say whether the president should be tested when he spoke to reporters outside the White House.
“I am not going to comment on an individual who has a very competent physician,” Dr. Fauci said.
Mr. Trump attacked Mr. Obama, who served with Mr. Trump’s likely Democratic challenger, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., in two posts on Twitter.
“For decades the @CDCgov looked at, and studied, its testing system, but did nothing about it,” Mr. Trump wrote. “It would always be inadequate and slow for a large scale pandemic, but a pandemic would never happen, they hoped. President Obama made changes that only complicated things further.
“Their response to H1N1 Swine Flu was a full scale disaster, with thousands dying, and nothing meaningful done to fix the testing problem, until now,” he continued. “The changes have been made and testing will soon happen on a very large scale basis. All Red Tape has been cut, ready to go!” he wrote.
Mr. Trump was not specific about what changes President Barack Obama made to “complicate things further,” but at least one regulatory change previously discussed by Mr. Trump and his C.D.C. director was never put into effect. Mr. Trump had leveled that criticism last week.
A spokesman for Mr. Obama declined to comment.
In his tweet, Mr. Trump may have been referring to actions taken by the Food and Drug Administration during the Obama administration, when the agency proposed regulating a high-risk lab-developed test with a premarket review. But that idea applied outside of emergency situations and was never finalized.
The F.D.A. took the position that during a public health emergency, nongovernment labs should come to it before doing tests. But at any time, the agency was prepared to suspend that practice, as it did recently when it gave laboratories and hospitals around the country the go-ahead to conduct tests that had been limited to those analyzed by the C.D.C.
Meanwhile, an Australian official who posed with Ivanka Trump and Attorney General William P. Barr on March 6 has tested positive for the coronavirus, officials said. Peter Dutton, the home affairs minister, said in a statement that he woke up with a fever and a sore throat, and later a test confirmed the diagnosis.
Mr. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence met over the weekend with a Brazilian official at the president’s private club, Mar-a-Lago, who later tested positive for the virus. After the revelation on Thursday, White House officials said the president would not be tested.
The White House has said that Mr. Trump barely interacted with the Brazilian man, despite a photo of them standing next to one another, and that the president has not been tested. Still, the guidelines from health officials suggest that Mr. Trump should be in a self-quarantine because of the exposure.
On Thursday, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, a member of the administration’s coronavirus task force, refused to say whether the president should be tested when he spoke to reporters outside the White House.
“I am not going to comment on an individual who has a very competent physician,” Dr. Fauci said.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, called the slow testing rollout a "failing" Thursday. President Donald Trump on Friday attempted to shift the blame for his heavily criticized response to the spread of COVID-19 to former President Barack Obama and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a federal agency which his administration has overseen for more than three years. Responding to reports that the U.S. has by far the lowest rate of testing among virtually every developed country, Trump claimed that the delays were caused by problems which he has now fixed.Advertisement: "For decades the [CDC] looked at, and studied, its testing system, but did nothing about it. It would always be inadequate and slow for a large scale pandemic, but a pandemic would never happen, they hoped," Trump tweeted. "President Obama made changes that only complicated things further. Their response to H1N1 Swine Flu was a full scale disaster, with thousands dying, and nothing meaningful done to fix the testing problem, until now. The changes have been made and testing will soon happen on a very large scale basis. All Red Tape has been cut, ready to go!" Trump did not back up his allegation that Obama "complicated things further" with any supporting evident, but he previously falsely claimed that his predecessor's administration made changes to the way the Food and Drug Administration approved tests. That claim is categorically false, because a discussed policy never went into effect. Former Obama aides also pointed out that 1 million people were tested for H1N1 within a month of the first case. The Obama administration acted months before the World Health Organization declared H1N1 a pandemic. By comparison, there have been fewer than 15,000 COVID-19 tests performed in the U.S., according to the CDC. Other countries like South Korea are testing up to 20,000 people each day. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, called the slow testing rollout a "failing" Thursday.Advertisement: Though the president was eager to try to shift the blame, former Obama aides also pointed out that it was Trump who disbanded the White House pandemic team in 2018. "We worked very well with that office," Fauci told Congress on Wednesday. "It would be nice if the office was still there." Trump previously tried to score political points by blaming former Vice President Joe Biden, alleging that his response to the H1N1 epidemic was "one of the worst on record."Advertisement: "Our response is one of the best, with fast action of border closings & a 78% Approval Rating, the highest on record," Trump falsely claimed Thursday. "His was lowest!" Obama and Biden declared a public health emergency after there were just 20 confirmed cases of H1N1. By comparison, there are at least 1,660 COVID-19 cases in the U.S. (though experts believe there could be thousands more) and at least 41 d
No comments:
Post a Comment