Fox Business Network host Lou Dobbs challenged Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar Monday evening, calling him out for a lack of transparency amid the coronavirus spread.
Dobbs spoke to Azar on “Lou Dobbs Tonight” about the coronavirus tests that are now available in the U.S. and he wondered if they are available “to the degree that we need them.” Dobbs noted that it appears as though America has a worse “ratio of testing” for the virus than other countries because the U.S. lacks “appropriate testing.”
Azar tried to sidestep the comment by noting that the U.S. has “a validated test” that is becoming more available. He added there were some issues with manufacturing on some of the tests, and Dobbs called him out for dancing around the subject and giving conflicting answers.
“I don’t want to play games with you, and I’m sure you don’t want with me, but when you use words like validated and then say that one segment of their use was invalidated by problems, you know, it just — this is not transparency,” Dobbs said at one point of the segment.
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Azar pushed back and said that there has been transparency “at every step of the way.” He then added that there should be “hundreds and hundreds and hundreds if not millions per week of tests available” soon because of a regulatory requirement change.
Dobbs asked for confirmation that more tests would be made available soon and then noted that Azar had previously said there were plenty of tests, but then acknowledged that there were not. (RELATED: Wuhan Coronavirus Crisis Shows No Signs Of Slowing Down And Has Hit American Shores, Here Are The Details)
“Mr. Secretary, I apologize. I apologize, but, frankly, you’ve just said that you had plenty, and now you’re acknowledging that you didn’t,” Dobbs said. “I don’t want to get bogged down in this, I mean, I really don’t, but I do want to understand how bad is this going to get.”
The Secretary of Health and Human Services said that the administration is “planning for all scenarios” and assured Dobbs that they would “take all measures needed to protect the American people.”
“I have absolute faith in the leadership. My concern is how much the American people are being told that they need to know, and that is, I think, everything,” Dobbs responded.