Political Quotes

“the coronavirus continues to spread, with more than 500 confirmed cases in the United States in two-thirds of the 50 States. Given the inconsistency and delay in testing, we don't know if the number of confirmed cases actually reflects the number of actual cases in the United States. We now know that when the coronavirus first appeared on our soil, the Centers for Disease Control produced kits that did not work properly and sent many of these tests to our hospitals and medical labs. The administration turned down tests from the World Health Organization, even though 60 countries accepted them, and we have no answer as to why. It took weeks to get an accurate test out, and then it took weeks for the Federal Government to approve certain sites to run those tests, like the Northwell facility on Long Island that I recently visited. It took weeks to ramp up the number of Americans tested, and we are still far behind other countries like South Korea in the number and percentage of the population we are able to test for coronavirus. The most powerful tool in responding to a virus is to know precisely where it is and how it is spreading, but because we don't have a complete handle on testing, many of our hospitals, doctors, researchers, and public health officials are flying blind, and we are still far behind where we ought to be in understanding how far the virus has already spread.…”