Top member of Trump's coronavirus task force asks Twitter for help accessing map of virus

Ken Cuccinelli.
(Image credit: Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

The White House apparently needs to increase its IT staff, or at least increase its subscription budget.

Acting Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli, who is the top member of President Trump's coronavirus task force, was having trouble accessing an online map produced by Johns Hopkins University of the virus' spread. So, he took to Twitter to ask if anyone else was having trouble with the website.

He quickly realized the map was behind a paywall, much to his chagrin. But while Cuccinelli expressed dismay over the university's decision to restrict access during a time of global concern, others pointed out that it was actually little more worrisome that the U.S. government's task force leader was struggling with such a simple issue in the first place. Tim O'Donnell

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.