In Midst of Pandemic, Trump Wants to Slow Testing While Virus Spreads at Record Speeds

On this episode of The Critical Hour, Dr. Wilmer Leon is joined by Dr. Iyabo Obasanjo, professor of public health at the College of William and Mary. She was appointed commissioner for health in the Ogun State of Nigeria in 2003 and elected to the Nigerian Senate in 2007, where she was the chair of the Health Committee.

During his campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday, US President Donald Trump said that the nation has tested more than 25 million people for COVID-19. "When you do testing to that extent, you're going to find more people, you're going to find more cases. So I said to my people, 'Slow the testing down, please.' They test and they test," said Trump. On Sunday, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) wrote a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar slamming the HHS Department for "failing to spend $14 billion in funds Congress approved in April to expand coronavirus testing and tracing," Common Dreams reported Monday. All of this while the New York Times reported Monday, "As the virus spreads at record speeds around the world, the United States accounted for 20 percent of all the new infections worldwide on Sunday ... even as the country’s population makes up about 4.3 percent of the world’s."  

Are you familiar with the Caesar Act? Per Wikipedia, "The Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, also known as the Caesar Act, is a United States legislation that sanctions the Syrian government, including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, for war crimes against the Syrian population." To my knowledge, the bill has not been passed into law. Instead, parts of it were incorporated in the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2020.

GUESTS:

Dr. Iyabo Obasanjo - Professor of public health at the College of William and Mary. She was appointed commissioner for health in the Ogun State of Nigeria in 2003 and elected to the Nigerian Senate in 2007, where she was the chair of the Health Committee.

Daniel Lazare -  Journalist and author of three books: "The Frozen Republic," "The Velvet Coup," and "America’s Undeclared War."  

Dr. Gerald Horne - One of the most prolific writers of our time. His latest book is "The Dawning of the Apocalypse: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism in the Long Sixteenth Century."

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