Donald Trump Wrongfully Blames Ex-POTUS Barack Obama For Coronavirus Testing Problems, Twitter Reacts

Donald Trump blames Barack Obama for the coronavirus testing problems.

Aaron Rupar shared a clip of the president during a meeting with airline executives at the White House on Twitter. Trump was speaking and he mentioned the Obama administration and how its previous move affected the testing for coronavirus.

“The Obama administration made a decision on testing that turned out to be very detrimental to what we’re doing, and we undid that decision a few days ago so that the testing can take place at a much more accurate and rapid fashion. That was a decision we disagreed with. I don’t think we would have made it, but for some reason it was made. But we’ve undone that decision,” Trump said.

The New York Times said that Trump was referring to a regulation that limited the abilities of state laboratories, universities and private companies to conduct screenings not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). At present, the labs are allowed to use tests that they independently developed.

“It’s really very, very important,” CDC director Robert Redfield said at the White House event. “It’s what’s changed the availability of testing overnight.”

However, according to Elizabeth Cohen and John Bonified of CNN, Trump’s claim against Obama was false considering what Sen. Lamar Alexander’s aide Taylor Haulsee and Peter Kyriacopoulos, chief policy officer at the Association of Public Health Laboratories, said.

According to Haulsee, the Obama administration didn’t make such rule change. He confirmed that the Obama administration proposed that the FDA should have more oversight over the approval of diagnostic tests, but it did not push through.

“There has not yet been significant regulatory reform of diagnostics passed by Congress,” Haulsee said.

“We aren't sure what rule is being referenced,” Kyriacopolous agreed. “There was an intense interest from FDA to pursue regulation of lab-developed tests during the Obama administration, but it never occurred. FDA did a lot of work on this, but there never was a final rule that came out of all that work.”

Trump’s claim against Obama only backfired because Twitter users weren’t convinced. One user wrote that it was the POTUS who eliminated the White House global health security unit. Meanwhile, Tommy Vietor, co-host of “Pod Save America,” said that Trump mishandled the coronavirus response.

Several online users also felt that Trump has no idea about vaccines and viruses because during a meeting with the pharmaceutical executives he kept on pushing for a two-month timeline, which is impossible.