Trump says governors playing 'political game' with virus tests

President Donald Trump accused Democrats on Monday of playing “an extremely dangerous political game” by insisting there exists a shortage of tests for the coronavirus. But Democratic Kansas Gov Laura Kelly, expressing the frustration of several state leaders, said the federal response has simply not been “sufficient.”

Trump's latest blast came even as Vice President Mike Pence assured governors the federal government is working around-the-clock to greatly help them crank up testing.

Pence sought to soften the Trump administration's message amid growing clamor from governors of both parties for a national testing technique to help secure in-demand supplies like testing swabs and chemical reagents. Trump said Sunday that he might use the Defense Production Act to compel one company to manufacture swabs.

“When it comes to testing, we’re here to greatly help,” Pence told governors throughout a videoconference from the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The Associated Press obtained sound of the call.

Pence said the administration sent an email to officials in each state on Monday detailing current testing capacity by state. But Maryland’s Republican Gov. Larry Hogan said a lot of the unused lab machinery listed for his state by the administration was in federal labs that the state doesn't have access to. Pence agreed to start federal labs to help states.

In Kansas, officials have said they wish to do 15,500 additional tests to sample the population to look for the prevalence of the coronavirus. Kansas has among the lowest testing rates of any state, about half of the national rate.

“That’s not good enough, and it truly is inadequate if we’re going to be able to begin to open our economy. We can not do this safely without the tests in place,” Gov Kelly said.

She said part of the problem has been due to how FEMA has gone about distributing the testing material and other supplies.

During the past, she said the government typically has had FEMA act as a single buyer of materials, which are then distributed to the states, which inventory it and send it to local agencies. She said during the pandemic FEMA has been distributing roughly half of its supplies that way and half directly to counties or individual hospitals.

She said the effect is that the state doesn't have an excellent handle on what’s being sent and where. And with staffing thin, it must spend crucial time validating information from the government about what testing and personal protective equipment supplies it is receiving.

As Pence spoke with the governors, Trump took to Twitter with a far more combative tone, complaining that the “radical left” and “Do Nothing Democrats” were playing politics with their complaints in regards to a lack of tests.

The president in recent days has repeatedly compared governors' concerns in regards to a insufficient screening capacity to earlier complaints that the states did not have enough ventilators to maintain with the federal government's projections of people who would become hospitalized through the virus outbreak.

“Now they scream ....'Testing, Testing, Testing,' again playing an extremely dangerous political game,” Trump tweeted. “States, not the government, ought to be doing the Testing - But we will continue to work with the Governors and take action. This is easy when compared to fast production of a large number of complex Ventilators!”

Public health professionals say the country must dramatically increase its testing infrastructure if it's likely to safely roll back restrictions and reopen businesses without risking a major spike in infections that could negate weeks of social distancing and financial strife.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the country's top infectious diseases expert, told ABC's “Good Morning America” Monday that the united states happens to be running about 1.5 million to 2 million tests weekly. But, “we really need to get right up to, at least, you know, maybe 2 times that, 3 x that.”

Administration officials have insisted that the U.S. currently has enough testing capacity to safely implement “Phase One" of an idea they released the other day to get started a slow go back to normalcy. Plus they have argued that states could possibly be running twice as many tests because they are now if only these were using all the equipment they curently have access to.

Separately, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf announced Monday that the U.S., Mexico, and Canada have decided to extend restrictions for nonessential travel across their shared borders for yet another thirty days, one sign of a recognition by the government that limitations have to continue for quite a while.

Trump on Sunday complained during his daily coronavirus task force briefing that states were unacquainted with equipment they already have in hand.

But governors of both parties have already been complaining for weeks that they can not crank up testing without federal assistance, particularly when it involves accessing supplies.

“We really need help,” Republican Gov Mike DeWine of Ohio said Sunday on NBC’s ”Meet up with the Press."

Hogan told CNN Sunday.that testing was “most likely the number one problem in the us, and has been right from the start of this crisis.”

“To attempt to push this off to say that the governors have a lot of testing, plus they should just get to focus on testing, somehow we aren’t doing our job, is just absolutely false,” he said.

Wyoming Gov Mark Gordon, another Republican, on Friday called on the federal government to have a larger role to avoid states from competing against once another for supplies.

For many people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as for example fever and cough that get rid of in two to three weeks. But also for some, especially older adults and persons with existing health problems, it could cause more serious illness, including pneumonia and death.

In recent days, protesters have taken to the streets in a few states, flouting their governors’ stay-at-home orders and social distancing regulations as they demand a finish to restrictions.

Fauci told ABC that “if you act rashly and go into a predicament where you have a huge spike, you’re likely to set yourself back. It’s going to backfire. That’s the problem.”