Former Trump Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin appeared on MSNBC on Saturday to speak about the outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus and urged viewers to ignore what the president and other politicians are saying about it and listen to the “healthcare professionals.”
“We’re stuck in a world where we’re googling about coronavirus and the good information is not nearly as salacious as the bad information and panic sets in,” said anchor Ali Velshi.
“I try to take my advice from health care professionals, not politicians,” said Shulkin. “So going to credible sources is a good place to start. And you know, my primary concern is for the safety of the public. I don’t think now is the time to do finger-pointing. But I think that we do have to stick to the facts, get the right information, and make sure that people are making good decisions based on facts and not fear.”
“So the first information people need is good testing,” said Velshi. “Sounds like by the end of next week we’ll have a million test kits out there. How do public health officials think about testing? Not everybody gets testing. That is not efficient. But we need good testing to figure out how many people are carrying coronavirus.”
“Yeah, I think the fact that we haven’t had good access to testing inadequate numbers has set us back and people are making up information because we don’t have the figures. So getting access to the tests, I think, is a game-changer,” said Shulkin. “But I think that people weren’t talking enough about screening. There should be good screening with asking people the proper questions, checking temperatures … so I think with adequate screening we can use testing in a sensible way and actually have data to be able it make fact-based decision-making so that we’re not having some of the overreactions that we’re seeing in the community.”
Take a look at his remarks in the video clip below:
