Former White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney calls coronavirus testing delays ‘simply inexcusable’

(Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

published 13 July 2020

Former White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney says he knows it's not "popular to talk about in some Republican circles," but he highlighted the United States' coronavirus testing issues anyway in an op-ed published Monday by CNBC.

In Mulvaney's view, the current economic crisis is public-health driven. For example, he argues the reason people aren't going on vacation is because they're afraid of getting sick, more so than their financial situation. Therefore, he doesn't think Congress' next stimulus package should focus on "ordinary fiscal tools," like sending citizens a check, since that alone won't reinvigorate the economy. "Make people feel safe to go back on an airplane or cruise ship, and they will of their own accord," he wrote.

One of the ways he thinks lawmakers can do this is by focusing on funneling aid to improve testing, which Mulvaney says is still a problem, and he has firsthand experience to prove it. His son, he wrote, was recently tested, but had to wait five to seven days for results, while his daughter tried to get a test before visiting her grandparents only to be told she didn't qualify. "That is simply inexcusable at this point in the pandemic," Mulvaney said. Read the full op-ed at CNBC.

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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.

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