Tapper Gets SCHOOLED By Surgeon General on White House Virus Response

Nicholas Fondacaro | March 8, 2020
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***To read the full blog, please check out the complete post on NewsBusters***

Despite multiple attempts by CNN host Jake Tapper to seemingly embarrass the Trump administration with their response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) during Sunday’s State of the Union, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams schooled him on the facts. Tapper even questioned if President Trump was even listening to the advice of medical professionals; only to be told the multiple doctors in the room were not being suppressed.

At one point, Tapper tried to stoke public fear by suggesting Trump was willing to sacrifice Americans on a cruise ship as so not to increase the number of people infected by COVID-19. “Is the President's desire to artificially keep the numbers low by keeping Americans who are off the coast out of the United States; is that desire impacting health decisions to help save these Americans who have coronavirus or who could possibly have it,” he demanded to know.

After pointing out that Tapper wanted him to make things political, Adams talked about how the safely of the people on-board cruise ships with the virus were a priority (click “expand”):

When the President comes in, he makes it clear that he wants the best advice from his health experts. As far as the cruise ships are concerned, our priorities are, number one, making sure people who are on those cruise ships and who need medical attention can get it. And we've flown people off the ships, we've flown CDC teams into the ships to help.

Number two, we want to get people off the ships as quickly and safely as we can. And number three, we want to protect our communities. And that's a delicate balance that requires the cooperation of many different partners, the Department of Defense, Coast Guard, and others. But again, we want to make sure we're taking care of those people on the ship and in a way that protects them, but also protects communities.

Tapper wouldn’t let his narrative go and amped up his claims by insisting the President was making purely “public relations decision[s]” and not medical ones.

“Well, what I can say to you is, based on my experience on the task force for about a week and a half and being in that Situation Room every day that the medical input is taken,” Adams counters. “You have multiple doctors in the room and our voices are in no way, shape, or form suppressed. As a matter of fact, the Vice President usually starts and ends by saying, ‘Doctors, is there anything I need to hear that I'm not hearing.’”

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