WASHINGTON, March 2, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday
defended the US administration’s handling of the coronavirus epidemic after
the first confirmed death on American soil and rising criticism of the state
of US preparedness.
Pence and Health Secretary Alex Azar made the rounds of Sunday talk shows
with the message that risks from the disease remain low for most Americans,
while promising to make up for testing shortfalls.
“We could have more sad news, but the American people should know the risk
to the average American remains low,” Pence said on CNN’s “State of the
Union.”
The assurances came a day after officials confirmed that two men had died
in the northwestern state of Washington after becoming infected with the
virus.
The first was a man in his 50s, with no known contact with persons infected
abroad. The second was a man in his 70s. Both had “underlying health issues,”
according to the public health officials.
Azar told “Fox News Sunday” the man in his 50s was in a hospital to which a
nursing home, hit by a coronavirus outbreak, had sent patients.
“So right now there’s a large investigation going on in the nursing home,
the hospital, contact tracing to try to determine where that disease was
introduced and how it might have spread,” he said.
The United States has had at least 70 confirmed coronavirus cases in all,
including 47 patients who were repatriated from virus hotspots in Asia and
quarantined for 14 days on their return, according to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. Pence put the number of cases among repatriated
Americans at 46.
More than 20 other people have been infected in the United States,
including the first case in New York state confirmed on Sunday — a woman who
had travelled to Iran. She was described as not being in a serious condition.
Genetic analysis suggests the novel coronavirus had probably been spreading
undetected for about six weeks in Washington state, The New York Times
reported.
– Testing kits –
The spread of the virus through communities would be an ominous development
that would almost certainly intensify the epidemic in the United States.
US health authorities have been slow to distribute coronavirus testing
kits, however, making the dimensions of the problem uncertain.
“It’s a very fair question, and it’s one of the first issues that governors
I spoke to raised with me,” Pence said when asked on CNN why the US was so
far behind other countries in producing testing kits.
He said more than 15,000 testing kits were released over the weekend, the
federal Food and Drug Administration has approved a testing regime, and the
government was working with a commercial provider to produce an additional
50,000 kits.
President Donald Trump put Pence in charge of the US response last week,
amid rising complaints that the administration had been slow to prepare for
the virus’s spread.
Trump himself had been criticized for seeming to low-ball the risk, even as
experts from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned of
a looming health emergency.
– ‘Political talking points’ –
Former vice president and Democratic candidate Joe Biden attacked what he
described as Trump’s “incompetence” in dealing with the epidemic, accusing
him of muzzling the government’s top experts.
“I see no preparedness other than political talking points,” he said on
ABC’s “This Week.”
Democrats also have roundly attacked proposed Trump budget cuts for the CDC
and for eliminating in 2018 a senior White House position for a director in
charge of global health security.
Right-wing commentators, meanwhile, have accused Democrats of “weaponizing”
the health crisis, while the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. accused them of
hoping the virus “kills millions” to hurt his father.
In defending the administration’s response, Pence credited Trump with
acting quickly to establish quarantines for Americans brought back from China
and Japan.
“The coronavirus remains low — and that is largely owing to the decision
the president made, the energetic efforts of CDC and local health officials,
and we’ll continue to lean in that in a hopeful way,” the vice president
said.