Everything’s going just fine, okay?
President Donald Trump claimed on late Tuesday night that his administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has the deadly coronavirus under control, despite the CDC’s warning of the disease’s inevitable spread in the U.S.
“CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus, including the very early closing of our borders to certain areas of the world,” he tweeted. “It was opposed by the Dems, ‘too soon,’ but turned out to be the correct decision.”
The White House asked Congress for $2.5 billion in emergency funds to deal with the virus, $535 million of which would be taken from the Ebola response fund. Democrats criticized the administration for the request.
“It is profoundly disturbing that their answer now is to raid money Congress has designated for other critical public health priorities,” House Appropriations Committee chair Nita Lowey (D-NY) said in a statement. “Worse still, their overall request still falls short of what is needed for an effective, comprehensive government-wide response.”
Trump has taken an optimistic tone about the deadly virus, primarily as a means to reassure stockholders that the market isn’t in danger.
“CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart,” he tweeted on Tuesday afternoon. “Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”
The CDC confirmed on late Monday that there are 53 cases of the virus in the U.S. and has warned that it’s only a matter of time before the disease begins to spread.
“It’s not so much a question of if this will happen any more, but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illness,” said CDC immunization chief Nancy Messonier on Tuesday.
