COVID Testing Czar Blasts GOPer For Dismissing COVID As ‘Phony Pandemic’

Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Health Adm. Brett Giroir speaks at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on a “Review of Coronavirus Response Efforts” on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool)
WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 16: U.S. Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Health Adm. Brett Giroir speaks at a hearing of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee reviewing coronavirus response efforts ... WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 16: U.S. Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Health Adm. Brett Giroir speaks at a hearing of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee reviewing coronavirus response efforts on September 16, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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Adm. Brett Giroir, the Trump administration’s COVID-19 testing czar, did not take Rep.-elect Bob Good’s (R-VA) remarks downplaying the severity of surging cases of COVID-19 nationwide as a “phony pandemic” lightly during an interview on CNN Wednesday.

During a Trump rally Saturday in Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., Good ranted against coronavirus-related restrictions and dismissed the COVID-19 pandemic as “phony” amid record-breaking COVID-19 infection rates and fatalities across the country.

“This looks like a group of people that gets that this is a phony pandemic,” Good told thousands of pro-Trump demonstrators on Saturday. “It’s a serious virus, but it’s a virus. It’s not a pandemic.”

Good doubled down on his grievances over COVID-19-related restrictions by dismissing the pandemic as a “hoax” and brushing off the more than 300,000 COVID-19 fatalities in the country by saying the deaths constitute less than 1 percent of the population in a series of tweets posted the day after.

Giroir issued a stern rebuke of Good’s nonsensical remarks during an interview on CNN Wednesday morning.

After bringing up that he does not personally know Good, Giroir matter-of-factly told CNN that “of course it’s a pandemic” before going onto take aim at Good’s “phony” assertion.

“There’s a definition of a pandemic and that is a virus that is raging across the world and this clearly is doing that and it has done that,” Giroir said. “We have hundreds of thousands of dead Americans, we have millions of people around the world — this is not phony, this is not fake. It is serious. We are still in a dangerous and critical time.”

Giroir also stressed that despite how COVID-19 vaccines will eventually help the country “put the nail in the coffin of this virus,” he warned against the public letting its guard down on mitigation strategies to reduce the spread of COVID-19 just because vaccines are on the way.

“But until then, we have to take it with utmost seriousness because, again, tens of thousands of Americans can either live or die depending on what we do to protect them until the vaccine gets widespread so it’s real, it’s serious,” Giroir said. “It’s what I live, breathe, think, dream every single day and all of us in America need to be that focused in order to save lives.”

When CNN anchor John Berman pointed out that Good will enter Congress next month, Giroir replied that he “will be happy to supply him technical assistance.”

Watch Giroir’s remarks below:

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