In addition to the issues that arise from having a completely inept president whose brain matter seems to consist of Tiddlywinks and empty Coke cans, one of the biggest factors that allowed the coronavirus to gain a foothold in the United States was the failure to provide adequate testing in a timely fashion. “The incompetence has really exceeded what anyone would expect with the CDC,” Michael Mina, an epidemiologist at Harvard told the New York Times earlier this month. People exhibiting symptoms of the virus have been turned away for testing due to federal guidelines limiting who can perform such tests on site, a shocking, practically criminally inadequate supply of testing kits, and, alarmingly, problems with kits that do exist. Not only has that caused the virus to spread, but it’s kept the number of confirmed cases artificially low. At present, the U.S has tested less than 500 individuals— to put that figure in perspective, the U.K. had conducted more than 7,100 tests as of Wednesday, while South Korea is said to be testing 10,000 people per day, and China has likely tested millions by now. Yesterday, in the U.S. the CDC apparently conducted zero tests:
Not surprisingly, Trump has addressed the extremely serious issue in the way he addresses most things in life: with bald faced lies. During his first press conference on the matter, he insisted: “We’re testing everybody that we need to test,” which was obviously completely untrue. During a visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he repeated the same lie, saying, “As of right now and yesterday, anybody that needs a test [can have one], that’s the important thing.” On Thursday, following a uniquely disastrous address to the nation from the Oval Office, Trump doubled (tripled?) down, telling reporters, “Frankly, the testing has been going very smooth.” Later, when asked about people returning to the United States from abroad, he very falsely claimed that everyone is tested upon arrival:
And then seemingly blamed people for being unable to get testing that, [by first-hand accounts]((https://twitter.com/landsbaumshell/status/1238143987246137350), does not exist:
In related news, two people who probably could get their hands on some tests but have chosen not to?