Is Trump’s America Ready for A Covid-19 Outbreak?

FEATURING LAWRENCE O. GOSTIN – New cases of the coronavirus continue to be announced every day in the US even as President Donald Trump’s administration downplays the risk of the disease. After initially asking for less than $3 billion in emergency funding to combat the spread of the virus, Trump signed an $8.3 billion package passed by Congress. But the President has shown a stunning ignorance of even the seasonal flu, insisted that Democrats were weaponizing news of the virus to undermine his presidency, and made unrealistic promises that a vaccine would be delivered within months to the American public.

Lawrence O. Gostin is a University Professor, Georgetown University where he directs the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. He is also the Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law where he has served in numerous high-level capacities. He also co-chairs the Lancet Commission on Global Health Law and served on two global commissions to report on the lessons learned from the 2015 West Africa Ebola epidemic.