President Trump on Tuesday continued his attacks on a government watchdog who compiled an unflattering portrait of the U.S. response to the coronavirus.
The Health and Human Services Department report from Principal Deputy Inspector General Christi A. Grimm said hospitals are reporting back severe shortages of personal protective equipment.
Hospitals also lacked testing kits and even when they could test, the results took a long time, making it difficult to allocate resources, according to the report that surveyed 323 hospitals across 46 states.
Mr. Trump, who insists his administration is doing a good job, dismissed the findings at a late-Monday briefing and stepped up his attacks Tuesday, asserting Ms. Grimm lobbed a political hit job.
“Why didn’t the I.G., who spent 8 years with the Obama Administration (Did she Report on the failed H1N1 Swine Flu debacle where 17,000 people died?), want to talk to the Admirals, Generals, V.P. & others in charge, before doing her report. Another Fake Dossier!” he said, likening it to the unverified and salacious document that outlined alleged dirt on Mr. Trump from Russia earlier in his administration.
Ms. Grimm is a career official who’s worked for the IG office since 1999, meaning she started in the Clinton administration. She was appointed to her position in January.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the H1N1 pandemic of 2009, which Mr. Trump has highlighted as a fumble by the Obama administration, killed 12,469 people in the U.S.
The coronavirus has killed over 11,000, though projections suggest it will easily exceed the H1N1 mark in the coming days or weeks.
Also Tuesday, Mr. Trump said the World Health Organization “blew it” in responding to the coronavirus and was too deferential to China.
“For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look. Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?” he tweeted.
WHO officials praised China for releasing the genetic sequencing of the coronavirus and taking aggressive measures to lock down Wuhan and other hot spots early on, saying it bought time for the rest of the world.
Critics said the WHO went too far in its deference, however, and should have taken a harder line on the communist government that downplayed the risks early in the outbreak, putting the rest of the world at a disadvantage.
WHO officials have cast themselves as disease-fighters who want to stamp out the pandemic and leave finger-pointing for later.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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