US Coronavirus Response: Romney Slams Trump On Testing, Says 'Nothing To Celebrate'

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, slammed the Trump administration’s record on coronavirus testing Tuesday, taking aim at Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services. During a White House press briefing with Trump earlier this week, Giroir claimed the U.S. is leading the world on testing and surpassing nations such as South Korea.

“I find our testing record nothing to celebrate whatsoever,” Romney said to Giroir during a hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. “I understand that politicians are going to frame data in a way that's most positive politically. Of course, I don't expect that from admirals.”

Romney said South Korea effectively used widespread testing to monitor the country’s outbreak. “The fact is their test numbers are going down, down, down now because they don't have the kind of outbreak we have,” Romney continued, referring to South Korea.

South Korea had used widespread testing, along with expansive contact tracing, in order to combat the virus. South Korea had measures already in place, as the country dealt with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome five years ago.

“This experience taught them to move quickly and early,” Yong Suk Lee, deputy director of the Korea Program at the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford University, told ABC News earlier this month. “Let’s track each individual and inform all the people so that they can be prepared and get tested. They communicated transparently with plain, factual, straightforward information.”

During the first week of May, the U.S. conducted an average of 250,000 tests per day. The Harvard Global Health Institute has said the U.S. should conduct more than 900,000 tests a day in order to control the outbreak, as states reopen.

Trump has frequently touted his response to the virus, but the United States now has more cases than any other country in the world. As of Tuesday at 3:55 p.m. ET, there are 1,358,901 cases in the U.S., with the country’s death toll at 81,650.