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On Tuesday, Republican Senator Mitt Romney issued a warning that the US President and his team are framing test data in a misleading way to score political points. He delivered his words during a hearing with members of the White House coronavirus task force. Romney said, “I understand the politicians are going to frame data in a way that’s most positive politically. Of course, I don’t expect that from admirals. But yesterday, you celebrated that we had done more tests and more tests per capita even in South Korea”. He informed Admiral Brett Giroir (a top Department of Health and Human Services official) and said, “I find our testing record nothing to celebrate whatsoever”.

Point to be noted that Admiral Giroir and President Trump delivered words during a Monday White House press conference. Trump said the United States has tested more people per capita than South Korea. Giroir said, “Everybody who needs a test can get a test. We have plenty of tests for that”. But the next day, Romney took umbrage. He said, “You ignored the fact that they accomplished theirs at the beginning of the outbreak while we treaded water during February and March. And as a result, by 6 March, the US had completed just 2,000 tests, whereas South Korea had conducted more than 140,000 tests”.

Romney added, “So, partially as a result of that, they have 256 deaths and we have almost 80,000 deaths”. It is noteworthy that the Covid Tracking Project (a nonprofit organization) has confirmed that the United States has been testing around 250,000 people a day. But many public health experts and Democratic officials say that rate is much too low to reopen the entire US economy. For example, Harvard University’s Global Health Institute has called for the US to conduct 900,000 tests per day. Experts and Democrats believe Trump administration was too slow to help states ramp up testing and laboratory capacities.