The delay in coronavirus test kit production at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the Obama administration’s fault, according to President Trump.
In a pair of tweets on Friday, Trump argued that former President Barack Obama complicated the test kit production procedures in the United States while managing the H1N1 flu crisis a decade ago and claimed he cut regulations to expedite the process.
“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. President Obama made changes that only complicated things further,” Trump wrote.
He added, “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!”
…. 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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2020
The lack of access to test kits has been one of the Trump administration’s most criticized weaknesses in their response to the coronavirus outbreak since the disease was first spotted in Wuhan, China, late last year.
Trump vowed to increase production, but the process has hit many road bumps, including potential contamination of kits in one Atlanta lab leading to even further delays. Beyond contamination, the first batch of test kits sent out was recalled because they delivered incorrect results.
One regulation Trump lifted was to allow states to produce their own testing kits. He also removed a regulation that required all test kits to be sent to a CDC lab to be confirmed by federal authorities, a process that extended the wait times for patients to be notified about their results.
Vice President Mike Pence, who is leading the White House task force responding to the coronavirus outbreak, said earlier this week that a million test kits have been distributed and 4 million more would follow by the end of the week.
More than 1,700 people in the U.S. have been infected by the COVID-19 virus and 40 people have died, according to a Johns Hopkins University tracker.
