US Cases: 2,330,367
US Deaths: 114,809
Worldwide Cases: 9,237,691
Worldwide Deaths: 476,911
Trump doesn't want tests, so he's pulling funding for tests. Trump has rightly been taking a lot of heat for telling the pitiful crowd at his recent rally in Tulsa that he asked his staff to 'slow the testing down'. And while his acolytes have tried to contain the damage by telling the media that Trump was only joking, Trump as usual doubled down, saying 'I don't kid'.
As it turns out, he was deadly serious:
The Trump administration is ending funding and support for local COVID-19 testing sites around the country this month, as cases and hospitalizations are skyrocketing in many states.The federal government will stop providing money and support for 13 sites across five states which were originally set up in the first months of the pandemic to speed up testing at the local level.Local officials and public health experts expressed a mixture of frustration, resignation, and horror at the decision to let federal support lapse.Texas will be particularly hard hit by the decision. The federal government gives much-needed testing kits and laboratory access to seven testing sites around Texas. But in the state, which is seeing new peaks in cases, people still face long lines for testing that continues to fail to meet overwhelming demand.
Everyone with a shred of objectivity knew back in February that Trump would bungle the response to the pandemic. But I doubt that anyone anticipated he would screw things up this badly.
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