President Trump is clearly unhappy with a New York Times report published Saturday that details several instances in which his "inability or unwillingness to absorb warnings coming at him" from top officials about the COVID-19 coronavirus, starting in mid-January, led to his administration "squandering vital time as the coronavirus spread silently across the country."
For example, top U.S. health officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar — then in charge of the White House coronavirus task force — and infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci were concerned enough about the virus by mid-February to schedule a Feb. 26 meeting to convince Trump to enact strict mitigation strategies like targeted "quarantine and isolation measures," the Times reports. But after another top U.S. health official issued a bleak warning about the outbreak on Feb. 25, the meeting was canceled, "replaced by a news conference in which the president announced that the White House response would be put under the command of Vice President Mike Pence." Trump issued social distancing guidelines March 16.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Jared and Ivanka's Albanian islandUnder The Radar The deal to develop Sazan has been met with widespread opposition
-
Storm warningFeature The U.S. is headed for an intense hurricane season. Will a shrunken FEMA and NOAA be able to respond?
-
U.S. v. Skrmetti: Did the trans rights movement overreach?Feature The Supreme Court upholds a Tennessee law that bans transgender care for minors, dealing a blow to trans rights
-
Trump sues LA over immigration policiesSpeed Read He is suing over the city's sanctuary law, claiming it prevents local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities
-
Obama, Bush and Bono eulogize USAID on final daySpeed Read The US Agency for International Development, a humanitarian organization, has been gutted by the Trump administration
-
The last words and final moments of 40 presidentsThe Explainer Some are eloquent quotes worthy of the holders of the highest office in the nation, and others... aren't
-
Senate advances GOP bill that costs more, cuts moreSpeed Read The bill would make giant cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, leaving 11.8 million fewer people with health coverage
-
Canadian man dies in ICE custodySpeed Read A Canadian citizen with permanent US residency died at a federal detention center in Miami
-
GOP races to revise megabill after Senate rulingsSpeed Read A Senate parliamentarian ruled that several changes to Medicaid included in Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" were not permissible
-
Supreme Court lets states ax Planned Parenthood fundsSpeed Read The court ruled that Planned Parenthood cannot sue South Carolina over the state's effort to deny it funding
-
Trump plans Iran talks, insists nuke threat goneSpeed Read 'The war is done' and 'we destroyed the nuclear,' said President Trump
