Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah), a prominent Republican voice in Congress, told senior Trump administration officials Tuesday that they are not adequately prepared for the possibility the coronavirus may spread more widely in the United States.
Romney confronted administration officials at a private briefing on Capitol Hill about the same time that President Trump downplayed concerns about spreading infections, telling reporters in New Delhi the situation is “under control” and is a “problem that’s going to go away.”
Romney, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said he does not think the administration has done enough to prepare for the infectious virus spreading widely among the domestic population.
“I’m very disappointed in the degree to which we’ve prepared for a pandemic, both in terms of protective equipment and in terms of medical devices that would help people once they are infected,” he said.
“At this stage, I think we are substantially underinvesting in what would be appropriate for a setting which could be serious,” he added.
Romney said he hopes a dire scenario can be avoided but added “we don’t know what the future holds.”
“I think we should be pulling out all the stops,” he said.
Romney raised these concerns with administration officials Tuesday morning at an all-senators briefing.
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