The White House overruled health officials who wanted to recommend that elderly and physically fragile Americans be advised not to fly on commercial airlines because of the new coronavirus, a federal official told The Associated Press. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) submitted the plan this week as a way of trying to control the virus, but White House officials ordered the air travel recommendation be removed, said the official who had direct knowledge of the plan.
Trump administration officials have since suggested certain people should consider not travelling, but they have stopped short of the stronger guidance sought by the CDC.
The person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity did not have authorization to talk about the matter. The person did not have direct knowledge about why the decision to kill the language was made.
In a tweet, the press secretary for Vice-President Mike Pence, Katie Miller, said that “it was never a recommendation to the Task Force” and called the AP story “complete fiction.”
On Friday, the CDC quietly updated its website to tell older adults and people with severe medical conditions such as heart, lung or kidney disease to “stay home as much as possible” and avoid crowds. It urges those people to “take actions to reduce your risk of exposure,” but it doesn’t specifically address flying.
Pence, speaking Saturday after meeting with cruise ship industry leaders in Florida, targeted his travel advice to a narrower group: older people with serious health problems.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar suggested older Americans and those with health problems should avoid crowds “especially in poorly ventilated spaces.”
For most people, the flu-like viral illness causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But – like the flu – it can cause pneumonia and be much more lethal to people made frail by old age and by conditions that make it harder for their bodies to fight infections.
Some experts this week said clearer and louder guidance should be made to vulnerable people, so they take every possible step to avoid settings where they might more easily become infected.
“The clear message to people who fit into those categories is; `You ought to become a semi-hermit. You’ve got to really get serious in your personal life about social distancing, and in particular avoiding crowds of any kind,”’ said Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University expert on infectious diseases.
That can include not only avoiding essential commercial travel but also large church services and crowded restaurants, he added.
Tell it like it isn’t.
Speaking at the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) main campus in Atlanta, Georgia, while wearing his “Keep America Great” re-election campaign hat, Donald Trump went on a rant criticizing Washington state’s governor, Jay Inslee, as a ‘snake,’ attacking Democrats, praising his own intelligence and spreading false and misleading information about the status of the outbreak.
Some commentators called Trump’s remarks in response to the public health crisis the most “disturbing” and “frightening” yet, as Trump also said he would prefer that cruise ship passengers exposed to the virus be left aboard so that they don’t add to the number of total infections in the US.
“I like the numbers being where they are,” said Trump, who appeared to be explicitly acknowledging his political concerns about the outbreak, “I don’t need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn’t our fault.”
Trump also said the coronavirus test was available to anyone who needed it, even though his own administration has acknowledged that there is currently a shortage among US healthcare providers.
US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar attempted to explain about the tests health care workers use to determine whether someone is infected with the new coronavirus. The lack of those kits, along with the government’s seeming determination to play down the disease, has meant a dangerous lack of information about the spread and severity of coronavirus in the US. The Health Secretary tried to say that more tests were on the way, pending quality control.
Trump interjected with more ludicrous misinformation, “But I think, importantly, anybody, right now and yesterday, that needs a test gets a test. They’re there, they have the tests, and the tests are beautiful. Anybody that needs a test gets a test.”
Beautiful or otherwise – this is simply untrue.
Vice President Pence told reporters Thursday that the US didn’t have enough test kits to meet demand and Governor Andrew Cuomo said that New York will develop its own coronavirus tests because the federal government version wasn’t available in enough quantity.
Trump also took a curious shot at Washington Governor Jay Inslee, “That governor is a snake … Let me just tell you, we have a lot of problems with the governor and the governor of Washington. That’s where you have many of your problems, OK?”
It was unsure what prompted that outburst – but possibly he was reacting to criticism from Inslee on Twitter about the way the outbreak has been handled.
Inslee later responded on Twitter, “My single focus is and will continue to be the health and well-being of Washingtonians. It’s important for leaders to speak with one voice. I just wish the president and vice president could get on the same page.”
Trump also touted his own medical acumen, “I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it,” he said after his tour of the CDC.
“I like this stuff. You know my uncle was a great person. He was at MIT. He taught at MIT for, I think, like, a record number of years. He was a great supergenius, Dr. John Trump.”
“Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.”
It’s hard to imagine all the doctors and scientists at the CDC praising Trump’s inherited medical genius, but maybe they did…
The new virus is a member of the coronavirus family that can cause colds or more serious illnesses such as SARS and MERS. Health officials think it spreads mainly from droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes, similar to how the flu spreads.
The virus first emerged late last year in mainland China, but this year has increasingly been spreading around the world. More than 100,000 illnesses have been reported globally, in more than 90 countries and territories. the count includes more than 3,500 deaths.