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  • breaking news.

  • CNN has just confirmed a whistleblower for the Department of Health and Human Service is reported.

  • US.

  • Workers who assisted Corona virus evacuees from Wuhan, China, did not have proper training or protective gear.

  • Let's discuss this and more with our medical and political experts, Eric Thing, Urine up demonologist of the Harvard School of Public Health.

  • What do you think of this?

  • This report, we confirm The Washington Post report.

  • Yeah, it's very troublesome because we know this virus is just so infectious, You know, if you go back to the cruise ship, a Japanese quarantine officer, fully geared, went on.

  • The ship came back off the ship, it was diagnosed with the virus and he was fully protected.

  • It's for to have to health workers, go onto that plane with known positive cases and have no protection is just gross misconduct and irresponsible.

  • Tell us also about this very disturbing development out in California, where CDC officials now say they have confirmed the first known what's called community spread of the Corona virus here in the United States.

  • Yeah, it's very troublesome because this is the first case the United States in which this person had no travel to China, nor have any contact with people in China.

  • It is an unknown origin, and we believe it's this first canary in the coal mine.

  • Sign it.

  • It's spreading in the communities.

  • But the problem is we have almost no testing.

  • We've only had less than 500 tests in the whole country.

  • South Korea has 40,000 and that's why we're kind of driving in the dark with no headlights without any sufficient testing.

  • It's so disturbing when we hear these developments, Gloria.

  • Especially now this whistle blower complaint.

  • A formal complaint by respected, highly regarded official of the Department of Health and Human Services who's saying that the U.

  • S.

  • Sent these people in there without protective gear?

  • Well, look, I think it's I think it's a real problem, and I take with the American public, wants to hear from the government right now, by the way, in this kind of a crisis, the American public generally believes what the government is telling you.

  • They want to believe you.

  • What they want to hear from is the scientists they need to hear from the scientists like Tony Fauci, who, according to The New York Times, maybe kind of muzzled by the administration.

  • He can't speak unless he's allowed to.

  • And he is somebody who's spoken on infectious diseases for decades and decades a regular guest on our program.

  • They don't want to hear from the politicians right now.

  • They want to hear from the scientist to know what is being done, what needs to be done, what we're missing, such as the testing, for example, and what they can do to protect themselves instead of getting platitudes which the president delivered yesterday, which was Everything is great.

  • We don't think it's going to spread here, but if it does, we're ready.

  • I mean, at least you know, to give the president some credit.

  • I think what he was trying to project is that America's health and scientific community is prepared that we have a lot of means.

  • I think that is good information.

  • People do want and need to know that, But I agree with you.

  • What we need is information.

  • As a citizen, I want the government to be working at the federal level in a in a united way, because on Lee the government has the scale and the ability you're saying to quarantine and to get this testing up in going.

  • That's what's so important.

  • I I just I cannot urge the political class enough to step back from accusations of weaponizing information and trying to make the president look back.

  • Everybody has got to be rooting for our government to be organized, to be transparent and to clear the way to make sure that what the health and scientific community needs it gets.

  • And at the same time that we communicate really effectively with people in my own family, my my kitchen, asking me, What do I need to know about this?

  • You know, there's a lot of misinformation in the age of social media.

  • Boy that fear.

  • What do you think about this effort not to control the messaging?

  • Prevent people like Dr Anthony Fauci, who's in charge of infectious diseases at N.

  • I H.

  • From going, I think it's a really bad idea.

  • I think that look, Tony Fauci is somebody we both have known.

  • All of us have known for decades leading combative combatant in the health community of even the HIV virus and AIDS.

  • So he's an expert, and when he speaks, people not only listen but they're reassured.

  • You want him to do that?

  • I don't like the idea that the administration would try toe shut those people down.

  • I think it's a good thing, frankly, that the vice president is tasked with this this effort, because he's got proximity to power, to the president and the organized, the organizational abilities.

  • But let's make sure we lead with our healthy scientific community.

  • Yeah, the CDC and night should be able to stand on its own their scientific bodies, public health scientists, people who know how to contain and control of this epidemic.

  • They need to have an independent voice.

  • That's not much.

  • You heard that you're the president say yesterday last night that he doesn't regret cutting the funding for the CDC and and I h yeah, that's very unfortunate.

  • And right now we need more than just a $2.5 billion requisition.

  • We need probably 10 X that because you know the number of scale of testing where we need to do to fully capture and stop.

  • This virus is on an order of magnitude this country has not seen.

  • And this is where the funding cut hurt.

  • Because if you had had the funding, one could argue that you might have had more of those testing kits that you might have been more prepared for something like this.

  • Now, I'm not saying that we can't get prepared.

  • Our public health community is amazing as you know and there, but they can on Lee, work so hard and do so much in a limited period of time.

  • And don't forget, the president was saying initially that this is a seasonal issue and that would all go away by the spring.

  • I hope he's right.

  • But the but the public health officials are saying not so much.

  • We just.

breaking news.

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