House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) slammed the Trump administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday after the agency changed its guidelines for COVID-19 testing.
During a conference call hosted by the Democratic National Committee, Pelosi criticized the Trump administration for its failure to take testing seriously.
“The CDC guidelines that they have put forth are scary and dangerous. It really is very sad and just reinforces the lack of attention and understanding that we have to have in order to crush this virus,” Pelosi said.
She added, “Scientists tell us, and they have told us over and over again over the past months, that we must be testing more, that we should be testing 3 million people a day. The administration has resisted that.”
Watch her comments below:
‘Shame on them!’ — Speaker Pelosi slammed the Trump admin over the latest CDC guidelines calling for less COVID-19 testing pic.twitter.com/2xKkOkj5OM
— NowThis Impact (@nowthisimpact) August 26, 2020
Pelosi suggested the president was talking about himself when he said testing is “overrated.”
“Every time he says something like that it’s like a rejection of himself, overrated,” Pelosi said.
She recognized “testing, tracing, treating, isolating, mask-wearing,” and “sanitation,” as steps scientists say, are necessary to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Pelosi reiterated the Trump administration will not reinforce these measures.
“Shame on them,” she said.
Pelosi went on to note the success of other countries in mitigating the effects of the pandemic in comparison to the United States.
“You have success from science. You have crisis from chaos and that’s what this president is about,” she said.
On Monday, the CDC revised its guidelines regarding asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus, as IJR previously reported.
According to the agency, asymptomatic carriers do not need to be tested for the coronavirus.
Previous CDC guidelines recommended testing “for all close contacts of persons with” the coronavirus.
As of Wednesday afternoon, there are more than 5.7 million coronavirus infections in the United States alone. The death toll stands at more than 179,000.
