Maine Has Received “Only A Small Fraction” Of Expected Rapid Testing Kits From Federal Government As Trump Administration’s Slow Response Comes Under Increased Scrutiny

 

Following Senator Susan Collins’ claim that President Trump “did a lot that was right in the beginning” of the coronavirus response, more evidence has come out that US officials were tracking the rising outbreak as early as November. According to CNN, intelligence gathered in November and the following weeks offered “multiple early warnings about the potential severity” of a coronavirus pandemic. 

 

Despite these and other early alerts, the Trump administration waited until mid-March to begin taking action to secure medical equipment needed for health care professionals on the front lines of this crisis. Because of Trump’s failure to act in the early months of this crisis to secure additional medical and personal protective equipment, the national stockpile of these supplies is now almost entirely depleted. 

 

Maine’s state CDC director said about Maine’s meager federal allocation of PPE, "We've got an umbrella and we're in a hurricane." Just this week, Maine CDC received only a small fraction of the rapid test kits it expected from the federal government, forcing public health officials to go “back to the drawing board” on testing strategy.

 

“There is a direct link between President Trump’s decision to ignore early warnings about the coronavirus and the shortages we are experiencing now,” said Maine Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Marra. “Our leaders should be fighting to get our health care professionals the resources they need, but Senator Collins has decided to make excuses for Trump’s failure to act instead.”

 

CNN: US intelligence agencies started tracking coronavirus outbreak in China as early as November

 

By Zachary Cohen, Jim Sciutto, Alex Marquardt and Evan Perez

April 9, 2020

 

Key Points:

 

  • US spy agencies were tracking the rise of the novel coronavirus as early as November, weeks before that information was included in President Donald Trump's daily intelligence briefing, a former US military official told CNN.

 

  • While the exact date of the first report remains unclear, sources told CNN that intelligence gathered in November and in the weeks following offered multiple early warnings about the potential severity of the pandemic now surging in the US.

 

  • ABC News reported earlier Wednesday that the National Center for Medical Intelligence, a branch of the Defense Intelligence Agency, compiled information in November warning that a new virus was spreading through China's Wuhan region.

 

  • The question of when the President was first aware of the Covid-19 threat has become politically sensitive as the US death toll surges, the administration's response comes under fire and Trump repeatedly denies it was possible to know how deadly the virus would be.


 

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