Dr. Anthony Fauci told House lawmakers Tuesday that administration officials have not been ordered to slow down COVID-19 testing, despite President Donald Trump’s remarks…
Dr. Anthony Fauci told House lawmakers Tuesday that administration officials have not been ordered to slow down COVID-19 testing, despite President Donald Trump’s remarks at a rally, apparently made in jest, that he asked officials to “slow the testing down.”
Trump told supporters at Saturday’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that COVID-19 testing was “a double-edged sword.”
“Here’s the bad part… when you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more people; you’re going to find more cases,” Trump said. “So I said to my people, ‘slow the testing down please.’”
Administration officials said Trump made the remarks in jest, with White House adviser Peter Navarro telling CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that the president was “obviously kidding.”
Fauci, who on Tuesday testified on the federal response to the pandemic before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said there had been no order from Trump to wind down testing.
“I know for sure that, to my knowledge, none of us have ever been told to slow down on testing,” Fauci told the panel when asked by committee chair Rep.
