On Wednesday night, President Donald Trump spoke to the nation about the growing public health challenge of the new coronavirus, known as COVID-19. Appearing with officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), he announced he had placed Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the administration’s response to the virus. Trump also suggested that the risk to Americans is low, while acknowledging the potential for the outbreak to grow. He said, "I don't think it's inevitable. It probably will. It possibly will. It could be at a very small level or it could be at a larger level. Whatever happens, we're totally prepared."
The president’s remarks were not at all aligned with earlier statements of CDC officials, including Dr. Nancy Messonnier, head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC, who said of the disease’s spread, "It's not so much a question of if this will happen anymore but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen — and how many people in this country will have severe illness.”
Granted, it is not easy for a non-health expert to take rapid-fire questions from reporters, nor can it be easy for the president to balance multiple competing voices within any complex administration. Yet, Donald Trump’s words appeared to downplay concerns about COVID-19 at a moment when we need clarity of communication, and well-defined commitment to public health above all else. Moments like this call for officials to respond accurately, sharing the urgency of the situation without causing undue alarm. The president’s ambivalence about expert opinion, seeming to downplay COVID-19, does the health of Americans no service at all.
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Read the full piece at Cognoscenti.