June 11, 2020/Press

ICYMI: Trump ramps down coronavirus response as NC tops 38,000 cases

The North Carolina Department of Health & Human Services announced that the state’s confirmed cases of coronavirus has topped 38,000, with more than 1,000 deaths. Wednesday also marked the third consecutive day in which a record number of daily hospitalizations were reported.

You wouldn’t know it based on how President Trump is acting.

According to a report from POLITICO, the Trump administration has scaled back its coronavirus task force and restricted testimony from public health officials while the president is preparing to resume holding campaign rallies across the country.

The story cites nine administration officials who discussed “how the White House is steadily ramping down the urgency to fight a threat that continues to sicken more than 100,000 Americans per week and is spiking in more than 20 states.”

“While North Carolina is still battling the coronavirus with all the tools at our disposal, President Trump is closing up shop and throwing in the towel,” said NCDP Communications Director Austin Cook. “From day one, this president has not taken the threat of COVID-19 seriously, and people across our state have paid the price for his inaction and incompetence. Ramping down the federal government’s response to this pandemic is nothing short of admitting defeat and leaving millions of North Carolinians at risk.”

Highlights from the story: 

  • Meanwhile, officials in at least 19 states have recorded two-week trends of increasing coronavirus cases, including spikes of more than 200 percent in Arizona and more than 180 percent in Kentucky.
  • Meanwhile, the department is steadily turning back to its many pre-Covid-19 priorities. At the Food and Drug Administration, officials are returning to hot-button issues like tobacco and CBD regulations.
  • At the same time, the Centers for Disease Control — traditionally the beating heart of the nation’s infectious disease response — remains largely demoralized and often sidelined in fighting what CDC director Robert Redfield last week acknowledged as the nation’s biggest health challenge in more than a century, and one he said is “moving through our social consciousness, our outward expression, and our grief.”
  • That grim message has conflicted with Trump’s frequent vows of victory over the coronavirus.
Read the full story HERE. 

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