White House blames rise in US virus cases on more testing, experts dispute this
WASHINGTON - Vice President Mike Pence and the nation's top health official, Alex M. Azar II, said on Sunday that reopenings in many states were not causing the sharp rises in coronavirus cases, but rather that increased testing was uncovering more and more infections.
On"Fox News Sunday", Dr Thomas Frieden, the former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that both the total number and the percentage of positive tests for the coronavirus had increased in several states, saying,"There's also no doubt that the virus has the upper hand." Pence, on the CBS program"Face the Nation," said,"I know there's a temptation to associate the new cases in the Sun Belt with reopening," but denied that to be true, adding that many states with increased cases had already reopened weeks ago.
But Frieden noted that it took time for patients who felt sick to be hospitalised and potentially die and said that infections in younger people were still a significant threat. "Because of the public-private partnership that President Trump initiated, we are literally able to test anyone in the country that would want a test who comes forward," Pence said.
He disputed reports last week by members of the American Medical Association that physicians and hospitals, particularly those in Latino communities, still did not have sufficient personal protective equipment."With all respect to the AMA, they don't have the information we have," Azar said."We are literally on the phone with hospitals every day."
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