The White House coronavirus task force is to hold its second meeting in two days on Tuesday in what will be seen as a sign that officials are stepping up their pandemic response amid a worsening crisis.
A senior administration official said the scheduling was simply the result of the vice president’s travel plans later in the week.
But last week, the task force held its first public briefing in two months to discuss rising COVID-19 numbers in 16 states and to urge continuing vigilance. The nation’s most senior infectious diseases expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said: “You have an individual responsibility to yourself, but you [also] have a societal responsibility.”
This was not the trajectory that President Trump wanted. In early May, he said the task force would be winding down its work as the focus switched to economic recovery.
At the time, officials said it was part of a natural realignment and that the need for regular public updates had diminished.
Meetings that had been running daily, followed by a press briefing, were reduced in frequency. Vice President Mike Pence, the chairman of the task force, attended only once a week.
But that changed last week as states such as Texas announced they were closing bars and reducing restaurant capacity and Florida was banning alcohol consumption at bars as the number of cases began to climb again.
Pence attended task force meetings on both Wednesday and Friday.
“Our focus today is very much on the advent of a rising series of new cases across the American South,” he said at a briefing held at the Department of Health and Human Services. “Now’s the time for everybody to continue to do their part.”
Marc Short, the vice president’s chief of staff, played down the idea that the task force had suddenly reemerged, saying scheduling of meetings this week was determined by travel plans.
“It has been meeting throughout, it has just been less visible,” he told the Washington Examiner. “Whether or not there’s more press interaction, like you saw with our trip on Sunday down to Texas, meeting with the governor, Arizona tomorrow, and Thursday in Florida … I think the Monday, Tuesday this week is probably because of our travel schedule Wednesday, Thursday.”
Peter Hotez, director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was the obvious federal agency to be leading the response or to be working “hand in glove” with the White House.
“But we’re not seeing either, and that makes me worried,” he said.
“Meanwhile, the numbers are going up, the deaths will follow in a few weeks, the permanent injuries are going to be lifelong, and they really don’t seem to be able to get their arms around it.”
