White House, CDC Detail U.S. Response to Coronavirus Threat
- February 28, 2020
President Trump this week tapped Vice President Mike Pence to lead the nation's response to the Coronavirus threat but in a February 26 press briefing to address growing fears of a pandemic, emphasized the risk to the American public from the virus remains "very low."
At an earlier briefing, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it expects to see "community spread" in this country.
"It's not so much a question of if this will happen anymore but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illness," CDC officials said.
The agency warned that communities may need to modify, postpone, or cancel mass gatherings. "I understand this whole situation may seem overwhelming and that disruption to everyday life may be severe. But these are things that people need to start thinking about now," CDC's Benjamin Haynes said.
Later that day, the agency confirmed the first suspected U.S. case of community spread in California. The patient had not traveled to China recently or been exposed to another known patient with COVID-19.
On February 25, the Office of Management and Budget asked Congress for $2.5 billion in funding for response efforts. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the funds will be used to expand surveillance work, support public health preparedness and response, support development of therapeutics and vaccines, and to purchase personal protective equipment.
Meanwhile, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced February 25 that it has begun a randomized, controlled clinical trial at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the investigational antiviral Remdesivir in hospitalized adults diagnosed with COVID-19.
Remdesivir, developed by Gilead Sciences Inc., is an investigational broad-spectrum antiviral treatment. This is the first clinical trial in the United States to evaluate an experimental treatment for COVID-19, NIH said
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