Former Secretary of State John Kerry is giving foreign leaders good marks for their handling of the coronavirus outbreak.
“They got tough immediately,” Kerry said during an interview on CNN on Tuesday when asked about the low number of confirmed in several European nations. “They didn’t play games. They saw it not as a hoax. They saw it as a genuine threat, and they responded immediately.”
He slammed President Donald Trump for “extolling the virtues the testing of this administration” while pointing out that several governors have said they do not have the ability to test enough people in their states.
“This virus was an external threat. It came from another country. We know it was China. It came over here. And so it’s been compounded by this absence of genuine, effective leadership,” Kerry added.
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Former Sec. of State John Kerry praised other world leaders for their response to the coronavirus. “They saw it not as a hoax. They saw it as a genuine threat and they responded immediately,” adding that the US crisis “has been compounded by this absence of effective leadership.” pic.twitter.com/m7WDLo9yU5
— CNN News Central (@NewsCentralCNN) April 21, 2020
He continued to say that the U.S. should be conducting millions of coronavirus tests per day to be able to safely and effectively reopen.
The Trump administration has said that it believes there are enough tests available across the country to start to lift restrictions that are aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.
A recent study found that the U.S. is conducting roughly 150,000 coronavirus tests per day — which is higher than last month. However, several experts have argued that the country must be conducting hundreds of thousands or millions of tests per day to reopen the country safely.
Experts have noted that it is important to test people to determine who has the virus and isolate them, and those who had contact with them, to limit the spread of the virus.
On Sunday, Vice President Mike Pence said there are enough tests available that “any state in America” can begin to reopen their economies.
However, several governors and have pushed back on that notion and called for an increased federal role in expanding the testing capacity across the nation.
“For the national level to say that we have what we need and really to have no guidance to the state levels is just irresponsible because we’re not there yet,” Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) said during an interview on CNN on Sunday.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) also said states do not have enough tests, “To say that the governors have plenty of testing and they should just get to work on testing, somehow we aren’t doing our job, is just absolutely false.”
“Every governor in America has been pushing and fighting and clawing to get more tests,” he added.