President Donald Trump has pitted economic stability against public safety with his handling of the national health crisis in the United States.
The President's repeated calls to reopen despite the recommendations of health experts have made following safety guidelines—such as wearing facial coverings—a political and potentially divisive act, all for the sake of reviving the Obama-era economic stability he touted as reason for his reelection.
That division is even setting in among his own staff, most recently with a squabble between Trump's economic advisor Peter Navarro and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar.
The tiff started when Navarro blamed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] for its bungled rollout of the first tests for the virus delivered to research labs.
Watch below.
Navarro said:
"Early on in this crisis, the CDC, which really had the most trusted brand around the world in this space, really let the country down with the testing, because not only did they keep the testing within the bureaucracy, they had a bad test. And that did set us back.
HHS Secretary Alex Azar was none too happy with Navarro's remarks, and responded to them a day later.
Watch below.
Navarro said:
"The comments regarding CDC are inaccurate and inappropriate. The CDC had one error which was in scaling up the manufacturing of the tests that they had developed...That was never going to be the backbone of testing in the U.S."
He went on to stress the need for private sector pharmaceutical companies to distribute and finesse the tests.
In a time where a unified response is vital, people weren't encouraged by the public infighting of Trump's officials.
The discord is reflective of the Trump administration's overall atmosphere.
For more information on the Trump administration's ineptitude, check out A Very Stable Genius, available here.
