Source: Screenshot/YouTube
On Tuesday an extraordinary exchange took place that illustrated the disarray of the Trump administration over Coronavirus. And it took place largely away from the focus of most of the media.
Scientists and health officials now say it’s a matter of time before the coronavirus epidemic starts to spread in the United States. “Current global circumstances suggest it’s likely this virus will cause a pandemic,” the principal deputy director of the CDC said on Tuesday.
Naturally, lawmakers want to know how prepared government officials are.
The answer, it seems, is not very.
Also on Tuesday, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) asked Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf how long it would take to develop a Coronavirus vaccine.
He said it would take about six weeks.
Just minutes later, when he asked Health Secretary Alex M. Azar the same question he got a very different response.
“We could, within a year, have a vaccine. But we want to…. put multiple vaccine candidates out there. We have a million dollars of proposed investment in vaccine.”
Sen. Kennedy asks Health Sec. Azar how long to create a coronavirus vaccine. Azar says could have one within a YEAR. Kennedy notes the DHS secretary just testified it would take a month and a half. "That's never happened in human history," says Azar.
— Michael McAuliff (@mmcauliff) February 25, 2020
A year. To which Kennedy responded:
“Maybe you ought to talk to the secretary of Homeland Security before he spreads that too far.”
In the Trump administration, the right arm doesn’t know what the left arm is saying.
If you prefer to see one cabinet secretary brutally rejecting the strange claims of another cabinet secretary on coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/E13sTLhuI7
— Michael McAuliff (@mmcauliff) February 25, 2020
