Maryland's GOP governor wryly thanks Trump for offering the use of federal testing labs

Gov. Larry Hogan
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

President Trump has repeatedly insisted the U.S. has plenty of coronavirus tests for everyone who needs one, though it is up to states to procure them. One of the glaring holes in Trump's assertion is that state officials are publicly and privately confirming what people trying to get coronavirus tests have long known: There are not enough tests.

So when Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) announced Monday that his state had purchased 500,000 COVID-19 tests from testing powerhouse South Korea, thanks to Hogan's Korean-speaking wife, Trump suggested Hogan was just ill-informed about labs available in Maryland. Vice President Mike Pence later stepped up to announce that the federal government would now let governors utilize the federal labs Hogan says he's been "desperately been trying to get help" from. Hogan took to Twitter on Monday night to thank Trump, kind of.

See more

The U.S. has conducted just over 4 million tests, according to the COVID Tracking Project. That is far short of the number of tests that many governors and nearly all public health experts say is needed to manage the outbreak after coronavirus lockdowns are lifted.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

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.

Sign up

Continue reading for free

We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.

Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.

Peter Weber

Peter Weber is a senior editor at TheWeek.com, and has handled the editorial night shift since the website launched in 2008. A graduate of Northwestern University, Peter has worked at Facts on File and The New York Times Magazine. He speaks Spanish and Italian and plays bass and rhythm cello in an Austin rock band. Follow him on Twitter.