March 6
Trump promised 4 million test kits will be available by the end of the following week. A total of 25,000 tests were conducted during the following seven days.
Read moreAnnouncement
March 6
Trump said at a tour of the Atlanta CDC headquarters, “anyone who wants a test can get a test. They’re there. They have the tests and the tests are beautiful.” Independent factcheckers called the claim…
Read moreMarch 4
Vice President Pence promised that “roughly 1.5 million tests” would be available that week, when in fact the U.S. was only able to test 1,895 Americans by week’s end.
Read moreFebruary 29
First COVID-19 death in the United States for a Kirkland, WA man in his 50s. There was no evidence the man had traveled recently or been in contact with another COVID-19 affected person.
Read moreFebruary 27
Trump tweeted, “Congratulations and thank you to our great Vice President & all of the many professionals doing such a fine job at CDC & all other agencies on the Coronavirus situation. Only a very…
Read moreFebruary 24
The Association of Public Health Laboratories pleaded with the Trump administration in a letter to allow state labs to develop their own tests as valuable time passed. It took the government several days before allowing…
Read moreFebruary 22
After visiting the Atlanta CDC lab, government officials then took days to determine contamination was happening in the manufacturing of testing kits.
Read moreFebruary 6
The CDC shipped its first limited supply of test kits to labs around the country, but within days the CDC began receiving reports that the tests were flawed and did not produce reliable results.
Read moreFebruary 4
Two former top public health officials who served in the Trump administration urged Trump to loosen restrictions, expand testing, and allow private industry to develop a coronavirus test, a step it will not take until…
Read moreJanuary 30
Just before his campaign rally in Iowa, Trump tweeted, “We think we have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment — five — and those people…
Read moreJanuary 29
Between campaign rallies in New Jersey and Iowa, Trump received a memo from a White House advisor warning the administration of the potential human and economic costs the country would be facing. At this point,…
Read moreJanuary 28
Ten days after the WHO had already released its guidelines for diagnostic detection of the coronavirus, the US published its own version of technical details for COVID-19 testing. HHS Secretary Alex Azar delivered the first…
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