West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is worried his state has a “false sense of security” being the last state in the union to get a confirmed case of the coronavirus.
In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Manchin, a Democrat, vented about his concerns a day after President Trump praised the leadership of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice during the pandemic.
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“I just knew that if we weren’t prepared, if people got lulled into a false sense of security, we were going to be harmed very, very devastating, and I thought it was just carnage waiting to happen. I wanted to make sure that people understood they should not get a false sense of security,” Manchin said.
He continued, “I was hoping the president would not go down that road in making [it] look like we’re doing something special. What we did — they didn’t test, John. Up until a couple days ago, we only had 40 tests done. Now, I think we’re at 130 or so. But with that being said, John, we have no testing. We’re not prepared. People think that we’re immune from this.”
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Manchin noted that people in West Virginia have a high rate of respiratory illnesses because of their work in coal mines and other industrial jobs. He claimed that a widespread coronavirus outbreak could be detrimental to the state. People with underlying respiratory illnesses have a higher fatality rate than those who are otherwise healthy, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
West Virginia announced its first confirmed case of the COVID-19 virus on Tuesday night. Its neighboring state of Virginia has nearly 70 confirmed cases.
