HOME DISCUSSION PROBLEMS & RESPONSE DETAILS LIES/HOAXES TIMELINE REFERENCES
To minimize his accomplishments, Democrats and 90% of the media have attacked President Trump with several lies/hoaxes about what he has said and done. The following lies and hoaxes are rebutted here:
1. Trump Did Not Call the Virus a Hoax
2. Hydroxychloroquine Hoax
3. Mask Hoax
4. Allowing Scientists to Speak Hoax
5. UV Hoax
6. Lysol Hoax
7. Downplay Hoax
8. Ventilator Hoax
9. CDC Funding Hoax
10. Hindsight Hoaxes
a. Virus Leadership Hoax
b. Social Distancing Hoax
c. Testing Hoax
1.TRUMP DID NOT CALL THE VIRUS A HOAX
Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and other Democrats claim President Trump referred to the Coronavirus as a hoax at a February 28 South Carolina rally, but he didn’t. From this clip:
“An examination of the video and transcript show Trump actually described Democratic complaints about his handling of the virus threat as “their new hoax.” He refers to the respiratory virus as a “public health threat” and reiterates “we have to take it very, very seriously. That’s what we’re doing. We are preparing for the worst.”
This Washington Post article confirms the above as it discusses a video the Biden campaign manipulated in several ways, including so it appeared that the President did call the virus a hoax.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/0March 1March biden-ad-manipulates-video-slam-trump/
And here’s a tweet from Washington Post writer Amber Phillips to apologize for at one point repeating the hoax.
Amber Phillips
@byamberphillips
· Mar 21
My apologies for quoting the president out of context. As The Washington Post’s Fact Checker makes clear, he called Democrats politicizing coronavirus a hoax. I have deleted the incorrect tweet.
2. HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE HOAX
The media said Trump was touting “snake oil” when he suggested that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) may be beneficial in treating the coronavirus. As of July 31, it is clear that it was not unreasonable for the president to suggest that.
As proven in the links below, hundreds or thousands of doctors and many epidemiologists have found the drug to be extremely beneficial when used properly—given early and along with antibiotics azithromycin or doxycycline and the nutritional supplement zinc.
As of the same date, Dr. Fauci has refused so far to endorse HCQ. In the past he cited several studies where HCQ was not used early (so are irrelevant) and one “study” where HCQ was used early but the “study” had many major flaws as explained here:
https://twitter.com/JamesTodaroMD/status/1289563464499781632
On July 31 Dr. Fauci testified before a congressional committee that he could not endorse HCQ because it had not been subjected to a double blind placebo controlled trial—the gold standard he requires for such an endorsement. One reason there has been no such study is suggested by many of the doctors cited in the several articles referenced below. They said they would never give a placebo to any patient because their results with HCQ are so overwhelmingly successful they would be killing many of the placebo patients.
In this July 23 Newsweek article by a Professor of Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health the author states:
"As professor of epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health, I have authored over 300 peer-reviewed publications and currently hold senior positions on the editorial boards of several leading journals. I am usually accustomed to advocating for positions within the mainstream of medicine, so have been flummoxed to find that, in the midst of a crisis, I am fighting for a treatment that the data fully support but which, for reasons having nothing to do with a correct understanding of the science, has been pushed to the sidelines. As a result, tens of thousands of patients with COVID-19 are dying unnecessarily. Fortunately, the situation can be reversed easily and quickly.
I am referring, of course, to the medication hydroxychloroquine. When this inexpensive oral medication is given very early in the course of illness, before the virus has had time to multiply beyond control, it has shown to be highly effective, especially when given in combination with the antibiotics azithromycin or doxycycline and the nutritional supplement zinc."
He goes on to cite several studies where hundreds of high risk patients have been saved by this treatment with almost no deaths.
This article written July 8 summarizes several studies and sources that as of that date conclusively prove HCQ is extremely beneficial when used properly. The article also mentions that a key study claiming HCQ didn’t work and was dangerous had been proven flawed and had been retracted.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/hydroxychloroquine-and-fake-news
Here are some other doctors, studies, and someone cured by HCQ also agreeing with himthat the drug is beneficial.
Dr. Thomas Zyniewicz, an emergency medicine physician at the University Medical Center in Las Vegas said the drug, which is frequently used to treat malaria and autoimmune diseases, has shown promising results in thwarting the progression of COVID-19. Two small studies out of China and France, as well as preliminary case studies across the U.S., are showing some benefit for some patients, he said.
A French researcher who treated 1000 patients with hydroxy and had a 99.3% success rate
A global survey completed by Sermo, “virtual doctors’ lounge” that facilitates medical collaboration and crowdsourcing, reported on March 27, 2020 that 6,227 physicians in 30 countries found that 37 percent of those treating COVID-19 patients rated hydroxychloroquine as the “most effective therapy” from a list of 15 options.
Here is a Michigan state Democratic lawmaker crediting the President Trump with saving her life. After hearing the President suggest the drug could be beneficial, she asked her doctor to prescribe it for her and began to feel relief in two hours.
A study published May 22 showed that HCQ reduces the chance of contracting Coronavirus.
On May 25 this letter signed by renowned scientists from around the world with 1000's of citations, addresses scientists and studies that reach different conclusions about the safety and efficacy of HCQ. It concludes that HCQ is definitely beneficial if used appropriately.
Most recently, this July 31 tweet cites 65 global studies showing high HCQ effectiveness for early treatment.
https://twitter.com/dbongino/status/1288642109961109506?s=20
Again: It was not unreasonable for President Trump to suggest that HCQ may be beneficial in treating the coronavirus. It turns out that hundreds or thousands of doctors and many epidemiologists have found the drug to be extremely beneficial.
3. MASK HOAX
Democrats and the media have claimed that among virus leadership Trump alone has been inconsistent in guidance related to wearing a mask. In fact, the president has been influenced by the inconsistency among the scientists guiding him. In this article we see that on March 2 the Surgeon General said that wearing face masks could actually increase a person's risk of contracting COVID-19, echoing remarks he made February 29 that called for people to "stop buying masks."
https://www.businessinsider.com/americans-dont-need-masks-pence-says-as-demand-increases-2020-2
In this article we see that in late February and early March Dr. Fauci also advised Americans against wearing masks, and that later he said, "he doesn't regret joining the other Trump administration's other public health experts" in giving that advice early on in the COVID-19 pandemic.
https://www.businessinsider.com/fauci-doesnt-regret-advising-against-masks-early-in-pandemic-2020-7
4. ALLOWING SCIENTISTS TO SPEAK HOAX
Joe Biden claimed President Trump was “muzzling” government scientists and “hasn’t allowed his scientists to speak” about the coronavirus.
It’s true that government scientists were told to clear their public appearances through a newly created coronavirus task force. But scientists, including Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have since made numerous public appearances to talk about the epidemic.
In this clip at :49 Dr. Fauci addressed the controversy in a White House press conference February 29 when a reporter asked about reports that he was being “muzzled.”
“So let me clarify,” Fauci said. “I have never been muzzled ever, and I’ve been doing this since the administration of Ronald Reagan. I’m not being muzzled by this administration. What happened — which was misinterpreted — is that we were set up to go on some shows, and when the vice president took over, we said, ‘Let’s regroup and figure out how we’re going to be communicating.’ So I had to just stand down on a couple of shows and resubmit for clearance. And when I resubmitted for clearance, I got cleared. So I have not been muzzled at all. That was a real misrepresentation of what happened.”
5. UV HOAX
The president was ridiculed for saying this at :15 in the following clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG0ciGfJ1xY
”Supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light — and I think you said that that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it. And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, and I think you said you’re going to test that too. It sounds interesting.”
That’s thinking like a scientist—asking the type of question that often leads to great discoveries. There is something that kill the coronavirus. Is there some way to deliver it to virus inside the body?
In fact such products were being tested and a few months later were used at multiple medical facilities:
6. DRINKING BLEACH HOAX
The Democrats criticized and ridiculed the president for saying this at :39 in the same clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG0ciGfJ1xY
“Right. And then I see the disinfectant (the experts had mentioned bleach as a disinfectant that killed Covid), where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that. So, that, you’re going to have to use medical doctors with. But it sounds — it sounds interesting to me.
Many Democrats and media reports ignored the phrase “something like that” and actually claimed that the president suggested drinking or injecting bleach into the body.
But again he was thinking like a scientist. We know of a chemical agent that kills the coronavirus. Is there some way to deliver it to the virus that’s inside the body? Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming asked that question when he saw that a green mold had killed bacteria in his petri dishes. That led to the discovery and use of penicillin.
Furthermore, the concept of injecting a disinfectant into the human body is not so outrageous. Many vaccines contain a disinfectant called thimerosal. From a google search: Thiomersal, or thimerosal, is a well-established antiseptic and antifungal agent. Since the 1930s, it has been widely used as a preservative in a number of biological and drug products, including many vaccines, to help prevent potentially life-threatening contamination with harmful microbes.
7. DOWNPLAY HOAX
A Bob Woodward book came out in which the president told the author he had downplayed the virus at times in order to avoid causing a public panic. Democrats and the Mainstream Media attacked the president for this action. In fact great leaders, for example, Churchill and Roosevelt, never told the public about worst case scenarios based on prediction models which are often unreliable.
After hearing on January 28 how bad things could be on, i.e., the worst case, at in intelligence briefing, the president immediately began taking actions to minimize the effects of the virus. Within days he had formed a task force headed by Vice President Pence, initiated the China travel ban, and warned of the virus at his State of the Union address February 2. See the section titled 1. He Was Ahead of Democrats, the Media, and in Many Cases Even the Scientists and WHO in Taking Decisive Actions to Mitigate Future Problems at the Problems & Response Details web page to see more events relevant to this subject, including WHO not declaring a pandemic until March 11.
What the president told the public was consistent with what the scientists recommended. After the Woodward book came out, Dr. Fauci said on September 9, "I didn't see any discrepancies between what we told [Trump] and what he told the public”...I didn't get any sense that he was distorting anything."
8. VENTILATOR HOAX
The Democrats and their media supporters attacked the administration for a Jared Kushner ventilator remark that ““The notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile. It’s not supposed to be states’ stockpiles…” The attacks left out the context: Multiple states were requesting a total number of ventilators that far exceeded the federal stockpile so they could each stockpile them for their own needs. The Administration obviously couldn’t honor all the requests so had to manage the distribution. Proof:
9. CDC FUNDING HOAX
Nancy Pelosi, Michael Bloomberg, and Joe Biden have claimed that President Trump cut the funding for the CDC. Here’s the truth from this article:
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-cut-cdc-budget/
“Although it’s true that Trump’s fiscal year 2021 budget proposal does propose a funding cut to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), that budget has not been enacted.
As the Washington Post explains, those funding cuts target the CDC’s chronic disease activities: The budget request would trim funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by almost 16 percent. HHS officials said they want the CDC to focus on its core mission of preventing and controlling infectious diseases and on other emerging public health issues, such as opioid abuse.
Officials propose to take the money that would normally go to fund individual disease prevention activities and funnel it into a single block grant to states. The budget says chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes have common risk factors, and thus consolidating funds “can help magnify the public health impact.”
Although the budget reduces overall funding for global health, from $571 million to $532 million in 2021, officials carved out an extra $50 million for global health security, which are measures aimed at disease detection and emergencies. That bump comes at the expense of international HIV/AIDS programs, which is being cut by about $58 million.”
10. HINDSIGHT HOAXES
The Democrats attack President Trump any way they can. In recent months they have used hindsight related to the handling of the virus. It’s always possible to criticize with hindsight, especially something as unexpected and complicated as a 100-year pandemic.
Illustrating how poorly Obama and Biden responded to the H1N1 swine flu is this statement on May 14, 2019 by Ronald Klain, currently a top Biden advisor: “In 2009/2010 I was working for Vice President Biden. I wasn't involved directly in the H1N1 response, but I I lived through it as a White House staffer and what I would say about it is a bunch of really talented really great people working on it and we did every possible thing wrong. And 60 million Americans got H1N1 in that period of time and it's just purely fortuitous that this wasn't one of the great mass casualty events in American history. It had nothing to do with us doing anything right, just had to do with luck."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c2PmErlEzQ
This clip
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1249738261464903680.html
which highlights U.S. responses to pandemics over the decades reveals how difficult it is to respond appropriately to a pandemic or possible pandemic. On every occasion, the U.S. was slow to recognize the problem and respond; either overestimated or underestimated the risk; experienced massive setbacks that delayed response; and often escaped due to sheer luck.
-1918-19 Spanish influenza causes 675K U.S. deaths, (when our population was only 103,000.000—31% what it is now) reduces U.S. life expectancy by 10 years. President Woodrow Wilson says nothing, does nothing, fails to stop WWI troop transports, clamps down on freedom of speech. Catastrophic underreaction.
-1976 H1N1 outbreak at Fort Dix. Pres. Gerald Ford’s health secretary predicts 1 million U.S. deaths. Ford rushes mass vaccination program without adequate testing. Turns out outbreak at Fort Dix was totally isolated and threat was massively overestimated. Ford charges ahead anyway. Rushed vaccines with manufacturing defects are linked to Guillain-Barre syndrome, boosting anti-vaxxer movement. Number of Americans prepared to get flu shots dwindles, putting nation in danger in future outbreaks. Catastrophic overreaction.
- 2009 H1N1 swine flu outbreak in Veracruz, Mexico has high reported case fatality rate. Officials fear half of U.S. population could get it, 90K could die. H1N1 spreads rapidly but turns out to have lower fatality rate than seasonal flu. Risk substantially overestimated. U.S. is lucky H1N1 is less dangerous than feared, because response is a blunder. Obama Administration promises 160M doses of vaccine by fall, but govt agencies fail to hit targets, do not disclose failures to public for 1 month. Projections revised down to 40M, then 28M doses.
- 2013 H7N9 flu in Shanghai has high mortality rate. U.S. govt does nothing, takes overly blasé attitude. HHS holds back on giving go-ahead to begin making vaccine. H7N9 doesn’t reach U.S. and U.S. gets lucky again.
- 2014 Ebola outbreak emerges in West Africa. Deadly, but hard to transmit. U.S. and WHO slow to detect and respond. U.S. government gives bland assurances that public is safe, but handful of infected patients enter country resulting in some secondary spread, panic.
(End of summary from the clip.)
The next two clips from 2004 and 2007 show warnings about the type of pandemic we are now facing. They prove that one can always find past warnings about pandemics. But that doesn’t mean the country should be fully prepared all the time. That’s too costly when there are many other problems to deal with and prepare for. There have been many warnings about the possibility or a larger meteor destroying life on earth. Clearly the Bush and Obama administrations did not fully prepare for a 100 year pandemic in spite of these warnings.
2005 President Bush warned about pandemic flus in 2005. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSDC5L7qYUc
A February 2007 article in Microbiology Review in says, “The presence of a large reservoir of SARS-CoV-like viruses in horseshoe bats, together with the culture of eating exotic mammals in southern China is a time bomb. The possibility of the reemergence of SARS and other novel viruses from animals or laboratories and therefore the need for preparedness should not be ignored.
https://twitter.com/RealJamesWoods/status/1241433231649427456?s=20
Specific hindsight hoaxes used by the Democrats include President Trump’s Leadership and his handling of Social Distancing and Testing.
a. Hindsight/Virus Leadership Hoax
Multiple Democrats, including Bloomberg and Biden, have criticized President Trump for getting rid of a pandemic response position on the National Security Council. In fact it was John Bolton, then-National Security Adviser, who eliminated the position, but the work was essentially moved to another division.
Details from here:
https://www.factcheck.org/2020/0March democrats-misleading-coronavirus-claims/
The Washington Post reported that former National Security Adviser John Bolton dissolved the NSC’s Office of Global Health Security and Biodefense in May 2018 in a reorganization effort. That’s when Rear Adm. R. Timothy Ziemer, who was senior director of the office, left his post. He was not replaced.
Tom Bossert, a former White House homeland security adviser who helped develop the administration’s biodefense strategy and was the designated lead for coordinating the American response to a biological crisis, was also reportedly pushed out when Bolton took over. Bossert resigned in April 2018, a day after Bolton started as national security adviser. Three anonymous sources told the Washington Post that Bolton requested his resignation.
Contrary to some recent news reports, Bossert was replaced with a series of people, but the job of coordinating a pandemic response does not appear to have followed. When Trump announced his coronavirus task force on Jan. 29, he did not name current homeland security adviser Julia Nesheiwat in any capacity.
Just because Ziemer’s position was discontinued does not mean everyone who was part of the team was fired or that all of the functions of the directorate ceased. According to reporting by the Atlantic and the Washington Post, some team members were shifted to other groups, and others took over some of Ziemer’s duties. An NSC spokesman at the time said that the administration “remains committed to global health, global health security and biodefense, and will continue to address these issues with the same resolve under the new structure.”
(End of information from the clip.)
Furthermore, the public health system has a playbook to follow for pandemic preparation — regardless of who’s president or whether specific instructions are coming from the White House. Those plans were put into place in anticipation of another flu pandemic, but are designed to work for any respiratory-borne disease.
https://apnews.com/d36d6c4de29f4d04beda3db00cb46104
There was no lack of pandemic response coordination or action. President Trump created a task force to coordinate the nation’s response to the virus on January 29. This was exactly six weeks before WHO declared a pandemic (Timeline March 11)and 31 days before the first known virus death in America. Two days later he announced the China travel ban. (Timeline January 31)
On February 25 at 2:24 in this clip Dr. Fauci says “We are reasonably well prepared. We’ve had a pandemic preparedness plan that we put together years ago.”
It’s important to note that the administration had to deal with several surprises no one could have predicted. As Mike Tyson famously said, “Everybody has a plan until you get punched in the face.” No one fully expects a 100-year flu to suddenly show up. And no one expects the country of origin to conceal its true extent for weeks while it hoarded key personal protective equipment supplies including face masks and surgical gowns. (See Timeline May 1, May 5 below.)
On 5/25 New York Democrat Governor Cuomo says all the (science) prediction models were wrong. There were too many variables.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/cuomo-we-all-failed-coronavirus-projections-new-york
Another problem was that: “There is no indication that the Obama administration took significant steps to replenish the supply of N95 masks in the Strategic National Stockpile after it was depleted from repeated crises. Calls for action came from experts at the time concerned for the country’s ability to respond to future serious pandemics. Such recommendations were, for whatever reason, not heeded.”
President Trump dealt with the surprises and problems with decisive, unprecedented actions.
On March 25 Mark Cuban refused to bash Trump on The View saying “I’m not a fan of President Trump’s, but I’m not going to rip on him either because any senator could have stood up and said something and screamed loud, any congressperson could have, nobody did…again, I’m not a fan of his but what’s real is real. When you have imperfect information, you make imperfect decisions. We’re not in a ready, aim, fire mode. We’re in a ready, fire, aim mode — and that makes it tough. And so, no matter what he did, it’s going to be wrong for some people.”
April 13 On the Howard Stern show Gov. Cuomo said about President Trump: “He has been good in delivering for New York. …The Army Corps of Engineers, we built thousands of beds. He sent the Navy Ship Comfort to New York. He has delivered for New York.“
https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/audio-rush-transcript-governor-cuomo-guest-howard-stern-show
On 4/13 President Trump forced the press to watch a clip showing them underestimating the virus and summarizing his decisive actions to combat it. The clip includes Democrat Governor Cuomo thanking president Trump for his team being responsive (to the needs of New York) and doing everything they can do and Democrat California Governor Newsom saying President Trump returns calls, reaches out, has been proactive, and saying how helpful his sending the hospital ship Mercy been.
https://twitter.com/CalebJHull/status/1y249825371710783489
Contrast Trump’s actions with Biden ideas on what to do and not to do:
When President Trump imposed the China travel ban which clearly ended up saving tens of thousands of lives, Biden said the action was hysterical xenophobia and fear mongering. (See January 31 Timeline entries.)
April 16 when asked on CNN how he would handle the crisis Joe Biden says: "The kinds of things that need to be done. Um, you know, there's a uh, during World War... Two, uh, you know, where Roosevelt came up with a thing that uh, you know, was totally different than a, than the, the, it's called, he's called it a, you know, the World War Two, he had the World, the War Production Board."
https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1250962230285414402?s=20
On May 7 in this clip:
https://www.cnbc.com/video/2020/05/07/lloyd-blankfein-economy-coronavirus-banks-squawk-box.html
Former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein says on CNBC at 5:14 regarding the administration’s fiscal and monetary response to the crisis: “In the future they’ll find 50 things that could have been done better. But in the fog of war, the heat of battle, I think they acted quickly, courageously, ands largely correctly. …It’s hard to get this stuff right.”
Regarding the reopening issue. At 1:35 he says: “Some people express it as dollars vs health. But that’s not fair. It’s really health vs health because poverty, GDP is also a health issue. Life expectancy goes down if there’s a bad economy, if GDP drops by a lot.”
In spite of surprises and problems, President Trump took early and continual decisive action including unprecedented travel bans and restrictions no one had ever planned for (involving China, Italy, South Korea, Iran, Europe, Canada, and Mexico). Clearly there was no lack of leadership or coordination.
b. Hindsight/Social Distancing Hoax
Typical of the hindsight hoaxes is a Washington Post Op-ed April 15 that estimated the lives that would have been saved if the White House had issued initial social distancing guidelines, including closing schools and avoiding groups of more than 10 on March 2, two weeks earlier than it did.
That’s completely unrealistic given these facts:
On March 2 there were only 11 deaths and 102 known infections in the entire country.
The next day in his opening remarks at a press briefing the head of WHO said COVID-19 spreads less efficiently than flu, transmission does not appear to be driven by people who are not sick, and said nothing about social distancing.
For several days after March 2 there was no concern about social distancing among Democrats. From the timeline web page March 2-10: Biden held rallies in Houston & Dallas on March 2, L.A. on March 3, St. Louis & Kansas City on March 7, Grand Rapids & Detroit on March 9, and Philadelphia on March 10.
On March 8 New York Governor Cuomo downplayed the seriousness of the virus itself, noting that it is like “a bad flu,” and not serious unless one is part of these vulnerable populations. (See Timeline March 8.)
Italy would not lock down until March 9th, Spain on March 14th, and the UK on March 23.
c. Hindsight/Testing Hoax
References used in this section:
Testing reference 1:
https://www.factcheck.org/2020/03/the-facts-on-coronavirus-testing/
Testing Reference 2:
https://www.factcheck.org/2020/03/biden-trump-wrong-about-who-coronavirus-tests/
Testing Reference 3
Democrats have criticized the Trump administration’s approach to testing, including these specific false claims by Joe Biden:
1. On March 15 he said WHO “offered the testing kits that they have available” but “we refused them.” (Testing Ref 2)
and
2. (as of March 1) the Trump administration didn’t “even have a test kit” for the new coronavirus. (Testing Ref 1)
To repeat: Both claims are false. Furthermore, testing problems were entirely the fault of the CDC and long-standing FDA regulations.
1. The U.S. did not turn down testing kits from the WHO, although it could have requested them. WHO kits are primarily intended for lower income nations without testing capacity. Many countries with the scientific capability designed their own tests as usual. This was a CDC decision. (Testing Ref 2)
2. “While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is widely viewed to have bungled the rollout of its viral test kits, there was a test kit at the time (March 1), and it had been successfully used by the agency and some states.” (Testing Ref 1)
Testing Details
Testing was delayed by many problems at the CDC and issues with longstanding FDA regulations.
Here’s a good introduction to this subject. September 13, 2020 On Face the Nation Dr. Scott Gottleib, former FDA commissioner referring to the February time frame said: “The White House leadership was failed by health officials. We did not have a diagnostic in the field so we couldn’t screen for it. We should have we should have started working on that in January. And we over relied on a surveillance system that was built for flu and not for coronavirus without recognizing that it wasn’t going to be as sensitive at detecting coronavirus spread as it was for flu because those two viruses spread very differently. Those were two critical failures. ...Ultimately the White House did not have the information they needed to make decisions… That’s what was going on over February.”
https://twitter.com/FaceTheNation/status/1305173111747284993?s=20
(The following information is from Testing Ref 1 until noted.)
Early on, all COVID-19 testing was done at the CDC with its own kit, and it performed well. The kit was successfully used to diagnose the first COVID-19 case in the U.S. on Jan. 20 in a patient returning from Wuhan to Washington state. A CDC report also notes that between Jan. 18 and Feb. 23, the agency tested 2,620 specimens from just over 1,000 people.
Problems arose after Feb. 5, when the CDC began shipping its kits out to qualified state and local public health labs in an effort to expand testing. Initially, the agency said it was releasing 200 kits — each capable of testing around 700 to 800 specimens — giving labs just one kit each. But by Feb. 12, the CDC told reporters that some labs had been experiencing issues when doing verification tests to make sure the tests worked.
The CDC has not clarified exactly what the issue was but has said that there was a manufacturing problem related to the third test component, which led to “inconclusive” results. The Association of Public Health Laboratories told us more specifically that a negative control, which should not have reacted to any of the primer and probe sets, was coming back positive for the third set, which was the test for all SARS-like coronaviruses.
For a while, the agency promised to re-manufacture the faulty third component and distribute that to the public health labs and, in the meantime, asked any lab that had difficulties to send samples into the CDC for testing. As a result, as of Feb. 25, only 12 state or local labs out of more than 100 nationwide could do their own testing.
More than two weeks after first announcing the testing issue, the CDC said it had come up with a fix — labs could proceed without the third test, and just use the two other primer and probe sets to make accurate diagnoses. The agency also said that it had manufactured new tests with just the two components, omitting the third.
What other factors limited testing?
Other than the lack of CDC test kits, several other circumstances prevented wider scale testing early in the outbreak.
One was the criteria the CDC used to determine who would be tested for the virus. At first, the CDC recommended testing only for those who had a fever and/or lower respiratory symptoms and had traveled to Wuhan or had contact with a suspected or confirmed coronavirus case.
In late February, after a patient in California was found to be infected despite a lack of known exposure, the CDC guidelines were relaxed to include anyone with a fever who was hospitalized with a respiratory illness. Then, on March 3, Vice President Pence announced that the CDC would lift all restrictions, as long as a doctor ordered the test.
The CDC updated its clinical criteria web page the next day, stating that clinicians “should use their judgment” in deciding who should be tested, keeping in mind the local epidemiology and COVID-19 symptoms — and strongly encouraging testing for other respiratory infections, such as influenza.
Another issue had to do with who could do COVID-19 testing.
Academic labs and other similar facilities that had the expertise to develop tests were advised not to use their own tests for diagnosing patients until they sought permission from the Food and Drug Administration. This is not a law but has been a de facto FDA policy. On Feb. 29, the FDA announced that validated in-house tests could be used for diagnosis immediately, as long as the agency received applications for the emergency use of the tests within 15 business days.
End of excerpt from Testing Ref 1.
More on the FDA regulations from Testing Ref 3 until noted.
Long-standing FDA regulations - in place since 2004 created barriers to the private industry creating a test quickly” for the coronavirus.
The regulations required laboratories to get an Emergency Use Authorization from the agency to use diagnostic tests and medical treatments that haven't gone through the typical clearance process.
The policy was intended to speed up the process, but researchers reported significant delays between seeking an application and getting approval and these regulations played a role in that.
On February 29 The FDA changed the regulations to allow labs to start utilizing tests before receiving clearance
On March 16, the FDA announced another change to its policies and put state officials in charge of coronavirus tests developed by laboratories in their states, meaning labs would engage with state officials and not the FDA. It also removes the requirement for these labs to apply for an Emergency Use Authorization for their tests. The changes also expanded which labs and manufacturers are included in FDA guidelines and which kinds of tests can be developed.
End of information from Testing Ref 3.
Another issue with the long-standing testing processes in place : On 3/12 at 5:08 of the following clip watch Dr. Fauci say: “The (testing) system is not really geared to what we need right now. …That is a failing. The way the system is set up is that…. a physician asks for it and you get it. The idea of anybody getting it easily the way people in other countries are doing it--we’re not set up for that. Do I think we should be . Yes.”
Bottom Line:
Testing problems and delays were due to the CDC and FDA. The Trump administration slashed red tape quickly, eliminated outdated rules and bureaucracy around testing and brought in the full power of America’s best-on-Earth private sector to help. (On the Timeline webpage note Trump meetings with Test Labs on March 4 and drugstore and pharma companies March 13.)