Here's a question.

Can America coat with a Corona virus pandemic?

The last really major one was back in 1918 when the Spanish flu killed 675,000 people in the United States.

Since then, America has rarely been tested until now, and Donald Trump is just banned.

Most travelers from Europe to the United States for 30 days, having previously tried to downplay what he calls a foreign virus, I am officially declaring a national emergency.

So why has the world's largest economy attracted so much criticism over its response to covert 19 right?

This is a big test for President Trump in his re election year, an opportunity for him to show strength during a crisis.

Yet two things happened a few years ago that didn't help the administration in advance off this outbreak.

Firstly, let's talk about this guy, Tim Zima.

He used to be the head of global health security on the National Security Council.

Basically, he and a group of experts would coordinate responses to outbreaks he was in charge of, for example, the president's Malaria initiative.

Sounds like he'd be a pretty good person to deal with this covert 19 outbreak.

Yeah, well.

In 2018 he left.

His position on his office, was eliminated.

Experts back then, worried about his departure.

One member of the Foreign Affairs Committee said expertise like his is critical in avoiding large outbreaks.

Was it a mistake that the folksy do you believe to dismantle the office within the National Security Council, charged with global health and security?

I wouldn't necessarily characterize it as a mistake.

I would say we worked very well with that office.

It would be nice if the office was still there.

The second thing is that in 2018 the budget for the CDC that's the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was cut by 80% on its operations scale.

Back in many countries.

Again, concerns were raised.

Here's what a group of health organizations wrote to the Trump administration Back then.

The United States stands to lose vital information about epidemic threats.

Garnett on the ground through trusted relationships, real time surveillance on research.

However, the head of the CDC has said recently that it's being chronically underfunded for years by different administrations under presidents from both parties.

And that's not just a United States problem.

It's a global one.

You don't prepare for a crisis like this in four weeks and a globally.

We have been under investing in preparing and we know it clearly.

And so that brings us to today on the Corona virus.

Once the United States political response being like now, each country is responding to the virus in different ways and with differing results on, there's no clear cut best way to respond to this pandemic.

Yet the United States has sent mixed messages.

From the end of January, the White House message was consistent.

Keep calm.

We have this under control.

The American people should rest assured that they are safe.

We're monitoring the situation in real time, the resources air deployed, the government's mobilized and we feel confident on.

We know the steps to take right now to contain it.

The next day, after the W.

H.

O declared a public health emergency, the United States did the same, and it also quarantined US citizens returning from Hu Bei province.

Now, Trump said come late February that that response had helped the United States stop the spread on even stated on February 26 that the 15 cases recorded in the country at that time would soon disappear.

When you have 15 people and the 15 within a couple of days is gonna be down to close to zero, Uh, that's a pretty good job with That was not true.

Two weeks after that statement, the number of confirmed cases in the United States was over 1000 on, the nation's leading expert on infectious diseases said.

Things were going to get worth.

We will see more cases and things will get worse than they are right now.

And Trump has come out with some dubious claims.

Now the virus that we're talking about having to do, You know, a lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat as the heat comes, and typically that will go away.

It April.

We're in great shape.

Well, I think the 3.4% is really a false number now.

This is just my hunch.

So I think that that number is very high.

I think the number personally, I would say the numbers way under 1%.

Facing criticism and after the W characterized the outbreak as a pandemic, Mr Trump gave an Oval Office address on March 11th to announce a new dramatic change to keep new cases from entering our shores.

We will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days.

Oh, it is worth remembering that the day before, Trump said this.

It's over 100 different countries and hit the world, and we're prepared and we're doing a great job with it, and it will go away to stay calm.

We're moving on from the mixed messaging from the White House.

Part of the reason for the uptick in cases was there just weren't enough tests for Corona virus available, and so no enough people were being tested.

For example, by February the 25th only 426 people have been tested in the whole United States.

Compare that to more than 35,000 tested in South Korea by the same time.

So why was that?

Let's talk about the C.

D.

C.

Now they're the main body overseeing this or in the United States, the sort of American version of the W.

H.

O.

Now, as China alerted the world to this new virus and began locking down Wu Han countries had time to prepare themselves, but it seems the United States might not have done that.

The CDC began sending out test kits to labs in the first week of February, so over a month after the outbreak first became globally known.

But then Labs reported that some of the kids were not giving conclusive results.

They told health departments to send their samples back to the CDC H Q in Atlanta, and they would provide the results.

So the test was sent out late.

They were wrong.

And then, due to the CDC having to take in the samples, results were slow coming out.

By the way, there are other tests out there.

China contest.

Up to 1.6 million people with theirs on German labs published their own version, which the W.

H.

O uses.

However, the CDC insisted that labs could only use their test.

CDC is rolling.

This was we very rapidly within almost 7 to 10 days developed a test from an unknown pathogen.

Once we had the sequence during that process of quality control, we found out one of the re agents wasn't working appropriately and we had to modify that with the FDA that took several weeks to get that completed.

But the test was always available in Atlanta.

Now.

None of this caused any immediate issues for the CDC at a time because demand wasn't that high from around stapes.

But that was partly because the CDC advice was that only those who had returned from certain effected countries could be tested.

So, for example, if you have bean abroad and in close proximity with international travelers in large crowds on might have developed some of the symptoms, you would not have been able to be tested for the novel coronavirus.

Health experts were calling on the CDC to change this advice, and they finally got their wish on March the fourth, when it was announced that anyone who wants a Corona virus test may get one if a doctor agrees.

But with that came or demand on more pressure on a system that was still not ready, and states have complained that there still waiting for test.

You know, we still have a very limited number of tests.

Overall, one letter from a New York officials said The slow federal action on this matter has impeded our ability to beat back this epidemic the system does not is not really geared to what we need right now.

What you are asking for that is a failing, and it is a family.

Let's admit it.

So let's finally talk a bit more about that knock on effect.

All this has for those on the ground.

Take the first United States case off Corona virus, which occurred in Washington state on January 20th.

There were no no new cases in the state until late February, but then suddenly we saw a large number of cases emerging from a care home there.

The life care center of Kirkland that care home in Seattle has seen more than 12 people die from Corona virus, and there are reports that more than 60 staff of showing symptoms off the virus.

And yet, when asked why they were still behind in testing everyone, the head of the facility said they asked the local and federal government for help every five minutes off.

Every day since this became apparent here, within the vicinity to date, we still have no results reported back to us on postmortem desk, nor can I confirm that those are that those patients are being actively tested as people and politicians became more frustrated by the government On the CDC, Donald Trump did sign an emergency bill for March 6 that provided $8.3 billion to health officials and to support research on vaccine development On Mike.

Pence's said that health insurance companies wave copays protesting and cover the cost of treatment for the novel coronavirus.

You need to make a commitment to the American people so they come in to get tested.

You can operationalize the payments.

I sure tomorrow I think you're an excellent question there.

So my answer is yes, excellent.

Everybody in America here that you are eligible to go get tested for Corona virus and have that covered regardless of insurance.

But the way the numbers went upside drastically on the struggle to contain it shows how bad the knock on effect can be if testing is delayed and there's a problem getting kits out to people who need it.

What we have then is a perfect storm of problems.

In the United States, President was modeled messages a CDC making errors on a LL that feeding down to the state level that's not to say every other country is better off than the United States.

China has suppressed information on its authoritarian regime, can implement decisions aggressively, and Italy and Iran have struggled to deal with the outbreak.

Indeed, would amass lock down of cities or towns or states earlier on have been helped?

Or would it, of course, mass panic.

There are lessons to be learned from many countries after this outbreak, and indeed, virus experts have for years been warning governments, politicians us that we just aren't prepared for something like this.

And too often we just throw money at these issues when they happen, rather than offering long term solutions to deal with next outbreak.