The national emergency declaration will also allocate up to $50 billion in disaster relief funding to states, effective immediately, Trump said. The president and his administration have faced intense criticism for delays in testing for the new coronavirus. Coronavirus tests are alarmingly hard to come by, which the top infectious disease expert at the National Institutes of Health called “a failing” on Thursday. Asked about the delays Friday, Trump defiantly said: “I don’t take responsibility at all.”When asked about his demolition of President Barack Obama’s pandemic response team, Trump called it “a nasty question.”In announcing the increase in tests, Trump still appeared to downplay the public health crisis. The travel ban was an illustration of the ways Trump has treated the coronavirus as a foreign invader rather than a domestic health crisis.

Source: Huffington Post March 13, 2020 19:35 UTC