Jared Kushner and President Donald J. Trump ( Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images).
President Trump has had 2 different coronavirus task forces, one of which was run by his son-in-law
Alex Henderson
July 31, 2020 6: 18 PM (UTC)
This article originally appeared on AlterNet
President Donald Trump has actually had 2 different coronavirus task forces: the White Home task force that is headed by Vice President Mike Pence and consists of medical specialists like Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, and a private sector-oriented task force headed by Jared Kushner– a White House senior consultant and the president’s boy in law. Kushner, according to Vanity Fair’s Katherine Eban, launched a coronavirus screening plan back in the spring. As a July 30 short article by Eban explains, things did not go well at all.
During a three-month period, Eban notes, “more than 2.4 million Americans contracted COVID-19, and 123,331 of them passed away of the health problem– first in New york city, and after that in states around the country. Guvs, public health professionals and frightened people sounded the alarm that a crucial lack of tests and the ballooning time to get outcomes were debilitating the U.S. pandemic reaction. But the million tests, some of which were dispersed by the Federal Emergency Situation Management Agency to numerous states, were of no help. According to files obtained by Vanity Fair, they were taken a look at in two different federal government labs and found to be ‘polluted and unusable.'”
Vanity Fair, Eban reports, has obtained a copy of a billing from the business Cogna Innovation Solutions that “noted an overall order of 3.5 million tests for a quantity owed of $52 million.”
” The tests’ mysterious provenance would stimulate confusion and finger-pointing,” Eban notes. “An Abu Dhabi– based expert system company, Group 42, with close ties to the UAE’s ruling household, determined itself as the seller of 3.5 million tests and required payment. Its demands were routed through different departments within Health and Human Services, whose lawyers sought in vain for an authentic contracting officer.”
Trump has actually been claiming that the U.S. has the most detailed, effective and extensively readily available coronavirus screening program in the world. That claim is wildly incorrect: during the current coronavirus surge, there have been many reports of individuals waiting much too long for their test results.
In the U.S., Eban observes, “Cable television news and front pages have actually been controlled by images of miles-long lines of cars and trucks in sweltering Arizona and Texas heat, their drivers waiting hours for limited diagnostic tests, and desperate Sun Belt mayors pleading in vain for federal assistance to expand screening capability.”
Alex Henderson
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