Ex-CDC director slams Trump's 'mind-boggling' incompetence — and warns more 'epic failures' are coming

According to The Washington Post, former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Tom Frieden is disgusted with the "mind-boggling" incompetence of President Donald Trump's administration in managing the public health crisis facing the nation.

"'It’s mind-boggling, actually, the degree of disorganization,' said Tom Frieden," reported Lena H. Sun, William Wan, and Yasmeen Abutaleb. "The federal government has already squandered February and March, he noted, committing “epic failures” on testing kits, ventilator supply, protective equipment for health workers and contradictory public health communication. The next failure is already on its way, Frieden said, because 'we’re not doing the things we need to be doing in April.'"

The report outlined how the main national efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic are coming from state-level partnerships — rather than from the White House.

"A collection of governors, former government officials, disease specialists and nonprofits are pursuing a strategy that relies on the three pillars of disease control: Ramp up testing to identify people who are infected. Find everyone they interact with by deploying contact tracing on a scale America has never attempted before. And focus restrictions more narrowly on the infected and their contacts so the rest of society doesn’t have to stay in permanent lockdown," said the report. "But there is no evidence yet the White House will pursue such a strategy."

"Instead, the president and his top advisers have fixated almost exclusively on plans to reopen the U.S. economy by the end of the month, though they haven’t detailed how they will do so without triggering another outbreak," said the report. "President Trump has been especially focused on creating a second coronavirus task force aimed at combating the economic ramifications of the virus."

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