WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) along with Yale University Professor of Public Health (Health Policy), Management and Economics Dr. Howard Forman; Tucson ER Physician Dr. Larry DeLuca; former senior HHS official and Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach; and Protect Our Care’s Coronavirus War Room held a press call on Tuesday to highlight the consequences of Trump’s failure to ramp up testing.

At his rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Saturday, Trump admitted that he intentionally slowed down testing to falsify reported coronavirus case numbers. Reports suggest the administration has withheld almost $14 billion in funding for testing and contact tracing since the pandemic began, which has severely impaired our ability to fight COVID-19.

On the president’s comments that he purposefully slowed down testing, Murphy said: “The president is telling the truth when he says that he's given orders to slow down testing in this country as we speak. He is closing federally funded testing sites, as we speak, [and] is refusing to spend the money appropriated to him through Congress to increase testing. He wants to pretend that this virus isn't spreading. He wants to wish it away.”

On the status of testing in Connecticut, Murphy said: “Now in my state of Connecticut, we've done the right thing. Even without significant federal resources, we've invested in creating a mask wearing culture. We closed down schools and businesses and kept them closed until we've significantly reduced transmission. And today, we are one of only three states in the nation are on track to sufficiently contain coronavirus. We are an oasis of good news amidst a widening desert.”

On the crisis spreading across the globe, Murphy said: “On Sunday, there were 183,000 confirmed cases globally; that was the highest number of daily cases since the beginning of this pandemic last November. The crisis is growing, not shrinking. And it is growing in part because this president continues to live in a fantasyland and now is openly admitting his campaign of sabotage, with respect to state efforts to identify and control the virus.”

You can listen to Senator Murphy’s full remarks here.

###