A Republican senator who has repeatedly warned about China’s lack of transparency regarding the recent coronavirus outbreak said the U.S. government is unsure of how many people have contracted the disease stateside.
In an interview with Fox and Friends on Tuesday morning, Sen. Tom Cotton said he is optimistic about there being a vaccine within the next 12 months but noted that there could be “unknown cases” of the coronavirus in the United States.
“I think the president is right that all the known cases in the United States are quarantined and are being monitored by health officials,” the Arkansas Republican said. “What worries me is possible unknown cases. I mean, take, for instance, in New York City, you had 1,500 people fly directly into New York from Wuhan itself in the month of January before we shut down air travel from China.”
Cotton said only 500 people have been tested for the coronavirus, and the Association of Public Health Laboratories said test kits were only being used in Nebraska, Illinois, and California at this time.
On Jan. 31, President Trump declared the virus a public health emergency and barred travel between the U.S. and China. More than 30 infected Americans are being monitored after the State Department charted flights returning expats and travelers from China and Japan in the past month.
“I want to commend the president’s decisive action last month for shutting out travel from China. About 20,000 passengers a day were coming to the United States from Mainland China, so that bought us several weeks to try to get our hands around the coronavirus problem,” Cotton added. “I’m optimistic about a vaccine, as the president is, in a much faster time frame than you’ve heard from some experts, you know, 12 to 18 months. I think we can do it much faster than that.”
The new strand of the coronavirus, which is part of a larger family of coronaviruses including Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, MERS-CoV, and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, SARS-CoV, has infected more than 80,000 worldwide with at least 2700 reported dead, mostly in mainland China.
