WATCH: Trump Health Official Repeatedly Dodges Questions About Possible Ventilator Shortages Due to Coronavirus
Trump health administrator Seema Verna dodged four separate attempts by Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum to clarify if there is a chance that the US public health system would have enough ventilators to treat severely ill victims of the coronavirus.
Verna, who leads the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is a key member of the Trump White House’s coronavirus task force. But, when pressed by MacCallum, she time and again would not offer a definitive answer on the prospect of intensive care units running short of the necessary equipment because of being overwhelmed by patients.
“In terms of actual equipment, we heard Bernie Sanders today, for one, coming out and saying there’s a major shortage of ICU units,” MacCallum noted. “We’ve heard that there is a shortage of ventilators, even swabs and equipment for the actual tests. What is being done about that, and how concerned are you that when these numbers do start to rise, which Dr. [Anthony] Fauci has told us to expect, that there will be enough ICU units and ventilators to help the people who get sick in this country?”
“That is why we have an emergency preparedness system. We are used to dealing with disasters. If we look at some of the disasters that have happened around hurricanes, and Puerto Rico and Florida, there is a system in place to make sure folks that are on the front line have the equipment on the supplies that they need,” Verna said, citing as proof of the Trump administration’s competence its emergency response to Hurricane Maria, which was widely condemned after nearly 3,000 American died.
“So are you saying we do have enough?” MacCallum cut in.
“We are meeting with providers almost on a daily basis to understand what challenges are they facing, and what can we do as a government level to support them and help them,” Verna said. “That is why we have been putting out so much guidance. It’s based on these dialogues that we’ve been having with the health care community about the needs that they have…”
“I understand — can I just ask one more time, will there be enough…” MacCallum tried to interject into the middle of Verma’s filibustering. Verna, however, was not having it and kept on speaking, eliciting a smile of frustration out of the Fox News host.
“Make sure people understand, before you go into your doctor’s office, you can call your doctor on the phone and have a discussion with them, and they can tell you whether you need to come in or not, and that is really important because we don’t want people to have travel unnecessarily if they are not feeling well.”
“We’ve made that point and I think it is important,” MacCallum acknowledged, when she finally got a chance to speak. “But I want to ask one more time before you go: Are there going to be people in this country who don’t get a ventilator if they need them? Are you concerned the actual, physical equipment that is needed to serve the people who will get sick is out there? Can you reassure everyone tonight that there is not a shortage of ventilators, or ICU units?”
“And that is why the president has taken such a bold and decisive action, right?” Verna said, praising the president instead of answering the question and prompting MacCallum’s eyes to noticeably narrow. “We are not waiting for this to get worse. We are not waiting for this to be a crisis in our health care systems, and that is why the mitigation strategies he announced last night, limiting travel from Europe, not allowing that, we’ve given travel advisories on cruise ships, that is why we are taking all of this action, because we don’t want to put stress on the health care system.”
“OK, that’s not a direct answer to the question,” a clearly frustrated MacCallum pointed out. “But it sounds like a hope that there won’t be enough sick people and we won’t run out of ventilators because we have mitigated, and we certainly hope — we certainly hope that is the case.”
Watch the video above, via Fox News.
