A top healthcare official in the Trump administration refused to say whether the country has enough ventilators to keep people alive during the coronavirus outbreak during an interview Thursday.
Fox News’s Martha MacCallum pressed Seema Verma, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, to say whether the country had enough ventilators and intensive care units to treat the thousands of patients that could need hospitalization because of the COVID-19 virus. Verma dodged the question three times.
“How concerned are you that when these numbers do start to rise, which Dr. Fauci has told us to expect, that there’ll be enough ICU units, enough ventilators to help the people that do get sick in this country?” MacCallum asked.
“Well, that’s why we have an emergency prepared system,” Verma replied. “We’re used to dealing with disasters. If we look at some of the disasters that have happened around hurricanes in Puerto Rico and Florida, there is a system in place to make sure that folks that are on the frontlines have the equipment and the supplies that they need.”
MacCallum asked Verma again whether there were enough ventilators to treat an influx of COVID-19 patients. Verma replied by noting that her administration has been meeting with local doctors daily to hear about their needs.
MacCallum asked one more time.
“Are there going to be people in this country who don’t get a ventilator if they need one?” MacCallum asked. “Are you concerned that the actual physical equipment that is needed to serve the people who will get sick is out there? Can you reassure everyone tonight that there is not a shortage of ventilators or ICU units?”
Verma replied by highlighting the “bold and decisive action” that the Trump administration took to limit travel from Europe and to place other travel advisories since the outbreak began. She added, “That’s why we’re taking all of this action because we don’t want to put stress on the healthcare system.”
MacCallum responded, “That’s not a direct answer to the question, but it sounds like a hope that there won’t be enough sick people and we won’t run out of ventilators because we have mitigated.”
More than 1,700 people in the United States have been infected by coronavirus and 40 people have died, according to a Johns Hopkins University tracker.
