After 1st US Death, Virus Task Force Leader Pence Confirms 'All Hands on Deck Effort'
Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday vowed that the battle against the coronavirus will unite all levels of government in a full-throttle effort to protect Americans.
“This is an all hands on deck effort,” Pence said during a Saturday White House news conference.
Pence noted that despite the first recorded U.S. death from the virus, the government’s measures to protect Americans are working.
Peace earlier noted that Trump took “decisive action” in response to the virus including the “unprecedented” step of stopping all travel into the United Stater, from China.
Pence said that the swift response was a reason that the current threat to Americans from the virus “remains low.”
Pence said the multi-agency task force he heads has been developing a range of actions.
“The task force met this morning and brought the president a range of options and, at his direction, we will be doing the following,” Pence said, listing no only “additional travel restrictions on Iran” but also a ban on “any foreign national who has visited Iran in the past 14 days” from entering the United States.
Pence also said that a Level Four advisory — the highest level there is — is being applied to regions of Italy and South Korea where there have been severe outbreaks of the virus. Americans are being advised not to visit those areas, Pence said.
Pence noted that the task force is only just starting its battle, but it moving forward quickly.
“I’m just a few days into this job, but I can tell you having spent time with these extraordinary professionals … I think every American would be proud to know what I’ve heard,” he said.
‘This team has been working seamlessly with health officials at the state and local levels, and I can assure the American public that we will continue to live out the president’s admonition a few days ago that we’re all in this together, and as we work with members of Congress, I’ve had the opportunity to speak with Republican and Democratic leadership in the Congress,” he said, noting that funding will be secured to support federal, state and local efforts to fight the virus and “protect the health of the American people.”
Pence addressed the issue of whether Americans need to buy masks.
“Let me be very clear, and I’m sure the physicians up here will reflect this as well. The average American does not need to go out and buy a mask. But this administration is going to always put first, our patients first, and second we’re going to make sure to protect the health of our health care providers.”
Pence noted that there were 40 million masks available, but that the government was working with manufacturers to increase the supply, prioritizing those with the greatest needs.
On Friday, Russ Vought, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, said the administration had fully funded the Centers for Disease Control and pushed back against what he termed “some of the main inaccuracies or nuances that are out there in the public debate,” according to a White House media pool report.
Vought noted that the “total amount for CDC of fighting infectious diseases and preparedness” rose by 3 percent.
Vought did not deny there are reductions in some areas within the CDC.
“We also think there’s waste, fraud, and abuse in this area, where you have studies on how taxi drivers are taking too few bathroom breaks, and whether that’s an important occupational health issue. Those are the kinds of things that we still think, even in a time of making sure that all the resources are there for CDC, we can find inefficiencies and waste, and deal with mission creep at the same time,” he said.
“So it is not true that we cut CDC infectious disease fighting — which gets me to the second one, which I think this is the main inaccuracy out there, which is this notion that you see in some of the New York Post and CNN reporting that we cut CDC by 80 percent. It’s flat-out inaccurate,” he said.
The order banning travel from Iran noted that “As of February 28, 2020, Iran had 388 cases of COVID-19, a significant increase from prior days. In response to that increase, on February 28, 2020, CDC raised its infectious disease alert to level 3, its highest level, which recommends that travelers avoid all nonessential travel to Iran. According to the World Health Organization, as of February 28, 2020, 97 COVID-19 cases have been exported from Iran to 11 other countries.”
“Iran is not a trustworthy state actor, as it has repeatedly demonstrated through its history of engaging in malign activity, and confirmed most recently by its repeated denials of responsibility for shooting down an international airliner. The United States Government is therefore unable to rely on official information disseminated by Iran, undermining the effective evaluation and monitoring of travelers continuing to arrive from that country,” the order said.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
