Vice President Mike Pence said on Sunday he was certain that other people in the United States would get the news. the coronavirus is spreading rapidly around the world, but said the risk to the average American remains low and that the government is doing “everything possible to prevent the spread.”
“There will be more cases. There is no doubt about it,” said Pence on NBC News’s “Meet the Press”. But he said that “the vast majority of Americans who get a coronavirus will be treated, they will recover.”
President Donald Trump has tasked Pence with a task force to coordinate the government’s response to the epidemic. Pence noted that the administration is taking a “whole-of-government approach”.
“Tomorrow I will have one of the most renowned infectious disease experts who will literally join my staff in the west wing. We will bring together the best scientific minds, experts,” said Pence. “We are going to work every day to contain this disease, to treat those who are contracted.”
“I am very confident that we are ready,” he said, “and I know we will get through it.”
Globally, there are more than 86,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 coronavirus and nearly 3,000 deaths, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. In the United States, there are 71 confirmed cases, and the first death was reported after the death of a man from the disease in Washington State.
“It is a tragic loss, and the man died,” said Pence. “He was an individual we believe in his late fifties, who also had other high risk factors, but that doesn’t take anything away from the tragedy.”
Pence said that among the confirmed cases in the United States, “the majority of them are recovering well” and “four remain in serious condition”. He said he would keep everyone affected by the disease “in our prayers”.
During an appearance on “Fox News Sunday”, Heath and social services secretary Alex Azar confirmed that the man who died of the disease was living in a retirement home where there were additional cases.
“At this point, we don’t know how this gentleman got the disease,” said Azar. He said the man died in a hospital where “the nursing home sends patients”.
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“There are also cases in this nursing home. So, right now, there is a big investigation going on in the nursing home, the hospital, looking for contacts to try to determine where this disease was introduced and how it spread, “said Azar.
Like Pence, Azar said the disease would continue to spread.
“We have been very clear from the start, we are going to have more cases here in the United States, despite the President’s aggressive efforts to contain, we will see more cases. We will see some forms of community spread,” he said. said.
“But the risk for each American remains low. Thanks to the efforts of the president, they remain low. We are working to keep it that way,” added Azar. “But things can change quickly.”
Pence and Azar welcomed the President’s response to the virus and his decision to restrict travel from countries where the epidemic has been widespread. But critics said the administration was slow to provide the necessary resources and accused the president of initially trying to minimize the severity of the epidemic.
Azar said that Trump “is trying to maintain balance in messaging so that the American people do not engage in unwarranted panic.”
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Several supporters of the president have accused Democrats of politicizing the disease to hurt Trump, who himself accused Democrats of creating a coronavirus hoax.
Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh said the virus was nothing but the “cold” and that Democrats were exaggerating the risk it posed of “militarizing” it against Trump. And the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., said the Democrats “hope he will come here and kill millions of people in order to end Donald Trump’s winning streak.”
Pence defended these comments as legitimate reactions to “irresponsible rhetoric among Democrats and commentators”. Pressed to give examples of this rhetoric, Pence was only able to cite an editorial in the New York Times by liberal columnist Gail Collins who suggested last week that the disease should be dubbed the “Trump virus”.
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“When you see voices on our side pushing outrageous and irresponsible rhetoric on the other side, I think it’s important, and I think it’s justified,” said Pence.
“Washington D.C. has just become reflexive every moment against this president,” said Pence. “Opposition to this president in the past three years has been unprecedented in my lifetime.”
Although Pence defended the words of the president and his supporters, he said: “Now is not the time for politics.”
“Our administration will continue to focus on the health and safety of the American people.”