Dr Sanjay Gupta, usually one of the more careful doctors on cable news in his comments about the response to COVID-19 pandemic in the United States couldn't contain his disdain for what Trump said last night at his rally in Tulsa, that he told "his people" to slow the testing down. Gupta called Trump's remarks "a travesty", "a level of ignorance that I'm dumbfounded by," and that Trump was complicit in the worst public health crisis of a lifetime.
The Trump campaign later said Trump was "obviously kidding." But I suppose that's what sociopaths do in times of national crisis if they're not real leaders, make jokes while people die.
WOLF BLITZER: Sanjay, what's very disturbing about what the president just told his supporters and anyone who was listening is there's too much testing going on. We've got to slow down on the testing for people who might have coronavirus. it's pretty outrageous to hear that, you want to find out who has this disease and who might be able to spread it.
SANJAY GUPTA: Yeah, no question, Wolf. I think that particular statement sort of took my breath away, certainly people in the public health world, the idea that I told them to slow down testing. I mean, it's -- you can't think of a better metaphor for burying your head in the sand on this. I told people to stop doing colonoscopies, they're finding too much colon cancer. it's a level of ignorance that I'm dumbfounded by five months into this. The idea that we're still not doing enough testing, I told them to slow down testing, that's the only thing we have, Wolf. testing and masks. There's no super effective medicine and no vaccine. Countries around the world their death counts number in the hundreds, not hundreds of thousands like we have in the united states. Why? Because they tested. They tested early. they did enough testing and they were able to isolate people and stop the transmission of the virus. To suggest now that I told them to slow down testing. first of all, who did he tell to slow down testing? Is this the coronavirus task force? this is something we have to dig into. this is suggesting a complicity in the worst public health travesty of a lifetime. It's criminal to say that that was the right answer. That was the directive given to people around the country to slow down testing. we've done 25 million tests so far. We've done 25 million in 4.5 months. We should be doing 5 million a day. now 20 million a day by the middle of July according to the Harvard roadmap to global health. I mean, that is how we get to the point where we can start to get our arms around this thing. right now we have a situation because of slowed down inadequate testing that, you know, is spiralling out of control, Wolf.
