Coronavirus

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, on COVID, as our country continues to experience the spread of coronavirus, COVID-19, the effects are beginning to be more acutely felt. First and foremost, our hearts go out to the families of those who have lost loved ones during this illness. Second, our healthcare systems are under tremendous stress, businesses have been forced to cut back, and the virus is already starting to take a toll on the economy. As the impact of the coronavirus spreads, the administration appears to have shifted its focus, holding a press conference yesterday to talk about measures the administration might pursue to calm the markets.

I would remind the White House: By far, the best way to ensure economic security for the American people is to deal directly with the coronavirus itself. Again, getting a handle on the crisis and addressing the virus itself is by far the best way to respond to any negative effects on our economy.

The administration seems to believe that the answer to any problem is another tax cut. And no matter what they say about it when they put it together, it always seems to benefit the wealthy and the big and powerful corporations. This is a healthcare crisis; it demands a healthcare solution.

To borrow an expression: You must treat the disease, not the symptoms.

Mr. President, do you hear that? You must treat the disease--the coronavirus--not the symptom, which is the result of the coronavirus, which is the economy.

The President wakes up to a problem only after it has an effect on Wall Street, and his solutions are often aimed, misguidedly, only at calming the nerves on Wall Street. The real answer in this case is to protect the American people, focus on their health and economic security, and competently respond to the public health crisis at our doorstep.

Speaker Pelosi and I have mentioned several actions we could take, from paid sick leave for impacted workers to unemployment insurance, food and housing security, and protections against price gouging. But one thing the administration must focus on right now, above all, is fixing the problems we are having with testing.

The most powerful tool in responding to a virus is to know precisely where it is and how it is spreading. Because the administration took weeks before they developed an accurate test and because the administration was slow to ramp up the number of Americans tested and is now having trouble turning around the results of those tests at a fast enough pace, we are now far behind where we ought to be in understanding how far the virus has already spread.

The United States has the best hospitals, doctors, and scientists in the world. Yet, currently, we are lagging far behind other countries when it comes to testing our citizens. We are behind the United Kingdom, behind France, behind China, behind Switzerland, the Netherlands, Israel, Japan, and Italy. Every day we read a new story in the press about Americans having difficulty getting a test for coronavirus even though they are displaying symptoms. Our own Health and Human Services was unable to say how many Americans have been tested.

It is shocking; it is infuriating. If other countries can do this, why can't we? If other countries do it right, why can't we? South Korea, which has far more prevalent amounts of coronavirus, is already seeing the number of new reports go down because they have done extensive, thorough, and accurate testing.

The result here--why we are not doing as well as other countries is a direct result of the colossal failure of leadership and planning from this administration and this President. One word describes the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus so far: ``Incompetence.''

I know there are hard-working CDC scientists and experts trying to help the American people. The political appointees are the ones who don't seem to get it and are putting politics over the safety and security of the American people. And it goes right to the top. In the midst of a public health crisis--a serious and dangerous public health crisis--the President has repeatedly pushed unscientific claims about the coronavirus, the availability of a vaccine, and given bad advice-- bad advice--to Americans who might have symptoms.

If the President would just keep quiet, it would be better than what he is doing, which is negative. What we really need is leadership. More than ever, we need the President to drop the conspiracy theories, end the Panglossian optimism, and the unscientific speculation. Now more than ever, we need President Trump to lead our government's response with competence and to be truthful with the American people. As I said yesterday, we are all rooting for that, but the President and his administration must take a hard look in the mirror, focus on the problem at hand, not the side effects, and get to work on fixing them.

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