A top CDC official says a U.S. outbreak is inevitable, citing a burst of new cases abroad.
The Trump administration on Tuesday faced a new threat in the mounting coronavirus crisis: a big bipartisan backlash.
Administration officials tried to swat away concerns their emergency request for $2.5 billion to address the outbreak was not enough even as some Republicans joined Democrats in criticizing the amount — and a lack of transparency around efforts to contain the disease on U.S. soil.
The closed-door briefing with more than a dozen senators came amid new fears of an outbreak in the United States, with a top Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official warning that spread of the respiratory illness in the country is now inevitable. Officials said a burst of new cases in countries like South Korea and Italy prompted the new, urgent warning.
That news and the angst on Capitol Hill is threatening to overwhelm the messaging from President Donald Trump and some of his aides, who have been trying to downplay the situation in hopes they can put a lid on the stock market tumble and cable news coverage of mounting deaths around the world.
Trump’s advisers and political allies are increasingly concerned that a botched response could hurt the U.S. economy and put his reelection prospects at risk. Public health and other administration officials fielded questions from more than a dozen senators for about an hour while HHS Secretary Alex Azar and acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf faced sharp criticism at a pair of Senate budget hearings.
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The Trump administration is facing growing bipartisan backlash amid the coronavirus crisis with Republicans and Democrats criticizing a lack of transparency around efforts to contain the disease on U.S. soil https://t.co/rL0Fcy4CI6
— POLITICO (@politico) February 25, 2020
A coronavirus outbreak in the United States is now inevitable, a top CDC official saidhttps://t.co/HdroqYK6eN
— POLITICO (@politico) February 25, 2020
Larry Kudlow is breaking with the CDC on the threat of a domestic coronavirus outbreak: “We have contained this, I won’t say airtight but pretty close to airtight” https://t.co/vvE6YCMc5B
— POLITICO (@politico) February 25, 2020
Trumpism is premised on the belief that expertise is more dangerous than things that kill you. https://t.co/DkD26TdzbM
— Windsor Mann (@WindsorMann) February 25, 2020
As both an emergency manager and as someone who helped manage the 2014 USG Ebola response, let me tell you why this is such a damaging tweet.
This is the loudest voice in the US government sharing actively problematic risk communication. https://t.co/L3PPHX4gW8
— Jeremy Konyndyk (@JeremyKonyndyk) February 24, 2020
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