Yesterday, you celebrated that we had done more tests and more tests per capita even than South Korea” Romney said during a hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Tuesday, addressing Admiral Brett Giroir, the president’s assistant secretary for Health and Human Services. “But you ignored the fact that they accomplished theirs at the beginning of the outbreak, while we treaded water during February and March.”
Politicians, he said, will “frame data in a way that’s most positive politically,” but he chastised Giroir, a military leader, for following suit. He went on to note that the “U.S. had completed just 2,000 tests” by March 6, the same date that South Korea’s testing total had shot up to 140,000. He concluded that America’s testing record is “nothing to celebrate whatsoever,” the coronavirus having now taken the lives of more than 80,000 Americans, while South Korea’s death toll remains in the mid-200s.