West Virginia senator warns against ‘false sense of security’ over low coronavirus figures
Sen. Joe Manchin on Wednesday rejected President Donald Trump’s suggestion that West Virginia was doing a good job of combating the outbreak because the Democratic senator believes testing is not adequately available, which means the true number of cases is unknown.
The Mountain State on Tuesday became the 50th state to announce a confirmed case.
“I wanted to make sure that people understood they should not get a false sense of security. I was hoping the President would not go down that road in making (it) look like we’re doing something special,” Manchin told CNN’s John Berman on “New Day,” adding that the state has only tested about 130 people for the virus as of Tuesday morning. “With that being said, John, we have no testing, we’re not prepared, people think that we’re immune from this.”
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced the state’s first coronavirus case in the eastern panhandle on Tuesday. There were more than 6,000 confirmed cases across the US as of Wednesday morning.
During a White House coronavirus briefing Tuesday, Trump touted West Virginia for having no confirmed cases.
“We have all of this equipment in stock and we’re looking at different sites and a few different locations,” Trump said. “And we’re not going to need them in West Virginia, where so far, I guess, they have none. Still none. Still none right? Big Jim, the governor, he must be doing a great job.”
Manchin said he has recently spoken with Vice President Mike Pence Tuesday night, who is the head of the White House coronavirus task force, and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn about the need for medical support.
“We need the testing, test kits. We have to have it and all the supplies that go with it. Talking to the vice president last night, we need personal protection equipment for all of our first responders and all of our health care workers.”
He added, “When it hits my state — and it has hit — it is going to be absolutely catastrophic.”
Manchin also said he was concerned about the effectiveness of the Trump administration’s proposed $1 trillion dollar stimulus plan to help ease the financial impact of the virus on American households and businesses.
“Just throwing money out, for the sake of throwing money out, thinking it is going to cure it, if you don’t have a plan, you don’t have a system that monitors that, John, you’re going to be trouble in the long run,” he said. “I’m concerned about that.”
