AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar listens as President Donald Trump talks to reporters at the White House on March 6, 2020.
- In the early weeks of the coronavirus crisis in the US, President Donald Trump's main focus was on keeping the number of infections low, Politico reporter Dan Diamond told NPR Thursday.
- For that reason he did not push to ensure that there were adequate testing capabilities for the disease, Diamond said.
- "The president had made clear - the lower the numbers on coronavirus, the better for the president, the better for his potential reelection this fall," Diamond said.
- He also said Alex Azar, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), had also "not always given the president the worst-case scenario of what could happen."
- The HHS distanced Azar from Diamond's remarks, while the White House declined to comment on the record.
- The Trump administration has faced criticism in recent weeks for the lack of testing facilities to assess the spread of the novel coronavirus across the country.
- On Friday Trump blamed those problems on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Obama administration.
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President Donald Trump did not push for more adequate coronavirus testing facilities to be made available because he believes that higher infection rates will dent his reelection chances, Politico's Dan Diamond told NPR on Thursday.
Diamond, who covers health policy for the outlet, was asked about the Trump administration's response to the virus in the first few weeks of the coronavirus outbreak, and concerns that the government had not done enough to stem the outbreak across the country.
"My understanding is he [Trump] did not push to do aggressive additional testing in recent weeks, and that's partly because more testing might have led to more cases being discovered of coronavirus outbreak, and the president had made clear - the lower the numbers on coronavirus, the better for the president, the better for his potential reelection this fall," Diamond told NPR, according to a transcript.
US health authorities have tested about 12,000 people for the disease since January, while authorities in South Korea are testing as many as 10,000 suspected cases a day.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar had also "not always given the president the worst-case scenario of what could happen" in the outbreak, Diamond told NPR.
In response to a request for comment, a HHS spokesperson directed Business Insider to a tweet from NPR, which clarified that it was Trump and not Azar who did not push for more testing facilities.
The White House declined to speak on the record.
In the early weeks of the outbreak one of Trump's key concerns, according to multiple reports, was how negative statements from health officials on the outbreak may impact the financial markets. The president has long regarded the health of the markets as a barometer for the strength of his presidency.
Trump's public statements have sought to project an optimistic picture downplaying the threat of the virus, which have come at odds with the somber warnings of other health officials.
"It goes away," Trump told reporters Wednesday. "It's going away. We want it to go away with very, very few deaths."
At a White House briefing last week he was corrected by Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, after falsely claiming that a vaccine for the virus would soon be available.
AP
Dr. Anthony Fauci and Trump speaks at a briefing at the National Institutes of Health on March 3, 2020.
There has been widespread confusion about the availability of coronavirus test kits in the country, and the Trump administration has faced mounting criticism over allegations it failed to ensure that adequate testing facilities were in place.
Last week Trump claimed that anyone who wants a test can get one, but there have been reports from across the country of the difficulty to procure a kit.
On Tuesday, Fauci told Congress that US testing facilities were inadequate.
"The system is not really geared to what we need right now ... let's admit it," Dr Fauci said.
In an early Friday morning tweet Trump sought to shift blame for the lack of tests available to failings at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and during former President Barack Obama's administration.
"For decades the @CDCgov 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," tweeted Trump. "President Obama made changes that only complicated things further."
"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!"
- Read more:
- Trump says it's not a 'big deal' he hasn't been tested for coronavirus, despite interacting with GOP lawmakers who've self-quarantined
- Trump's health secretary says 'we don't know' how many Americans have been tested for coronavirus
- The UK is in a state of 'genuine disbelief' about how bad Trump's response to the coronavirus outbreak has been
A previous tweet of this quote did not make it adequately clear that it is Trump who did not push for adequate testing, not Secretary of Health and Human Services Azar. Here is the whole quote for context. @ddiamond pic.twitter.com/ZZ2aPF53m6
- Fresh Air (@nprfreshair) March 12, 2020ER doc described 2 recent patients in enough respiratory distress to be admitted to the hospital, tested negative for flu and 20 common viruses, had CT scans consistent with Covid-19. State denied them both testing. Doc: "It made me realize that they weren't testing anyone." https://t.co/q3rgzpWTH6
- emma brown (@emmersbrown) March 12, 2020