So that’s it, Vice President Pence? You’re just going to close your eyes, plug your ears, and pat yourself on the back for the public health catastrophe under your watch? This is as pathetic as it is reckless.
Coronavirus keeps spreading across the country. Hundreds of Americans are still dying every day. And Dr. Fauci confirmed to me last month that another wave of coronavirus is “inevitable.” Vice President Pence shouldn’t be celebrating – he should be making a plan.
As head of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, Pence should be getting ready for the alarming possibility of another coronavirus wave on top of a bad flu season. I warned the Vice President to prepare last month.
The White House has failed to obtain and distribute medical supplies. Last week I urged the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee to investigate Jared Kushner's Project Air Bridge after we found delays, incompetence, confusion, and ethics concerns.
We need more COVID-19 tests, more PPE, and a vaccine – and a federal government that can distribute them at scale. Which is why Trump and Pence should be using the Defense Production Act now and championing my bill to publicly manufacture COVID-19 supplies.
And if Vice President Pence is bored, he could find out why
the CDC still has huge gaps in its race and ethnicity data so we make sure our federal response is reaching Black and Brown communities hit hardest by this crisis. This shouldn’t wait until the August deadline.
The White House ignored the threat of COVID-19 until it was too late to stop it, left states without the equipment to fight it, and didn’t track its spread to contain it. Now they want to wave a magic wand and declare "Mission Accomplished."
Wake up and get to work, Vice President Pence.