Prognosis
Trump Administration Promises Hospital Beds Without Moving to Slow Virus
- Administration focused on treatment over effort to slow spread
- Pence says public has tuned out after media were ‘crying wolf’
Photographer: Erin Clark/Boston Globe/Getty Images
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The Trump administration has assured states they’ll have enough hospital beds and equipment to handle the alarming nationwide surge in coronavirus cases, but it isn’t advocating for additional measures to slow the virus’s spread and continues to shut out Joe Biden’s advisers.
Several American governors have imposed new restrictions on businesses and social life, and New York City announced Wednesday it would close schools. In a call with governors two days earlier, Vice President Mike Pence, who leads the federal pandemic response, said that the nation has thousands of hospital beds in reserve and ample supplies of protective gear, with vaccines around the corner.