Republican Sen. Rick Scott said Sunday that the US has not beaten the coronavirus pandemic as President Donald Trump is falsely claiming that the country is “rounding the corner” on the surging virus in the final days of the 2020 campaign.
“We haven’t beaten this yet,” Scott told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union,” urging “all of us” to wear a mask and practice social distancing.
Trump in Pennsylvania on Saturday pushed baseless claims to try and convince voters the coronavirus pandemic is improving, despite the number of new cases, hospitalizations and the test positivity rate all increasing.
On CNN Sunday, Scott said the federal government has made progress on therapeutics and potential vaccines, but needs to improve testing for Americans.
“Hopefully, we make a lot of progress on the vaccine. But we still have a lot of work to do, especially work to do on testing. We got to get more testing out there for the private sector,” Scott told Tapper.
He added later, “We have made progress on testing, but we are still not where we need to be yet. I want people to really think about how do we get more businesses these rapid tests so we can get these businesses open faster?”
Asked by Tapper if he’s bothered by the President’s large outdoor rallies that potentially put his constituents at risk, Scott replied, “Everybody’s got to take this seriously.”
“You should wear your mask, you should social distance. But it’s your responsibility to make these decisions for yourself. And there’s a way to do these things safely and my expectation that every American does that,” the Florida Republican said ahead of Trump’s planned rally in Miami Sunday night.
Last week, on the same program, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told CNN that the US is “not going to control” the coronavirus pandemic, but “going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigation areas.”
Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller said Sunday that the President continues to say the US is nearing the end of the pandemic — despite the surge in cases — because the country is close to approving a vaccine.
“We’re right there on the cusp of having this vaccine finalized and ready for distribution. We will have it done and start distributing it by the end of the year,” Miller said on ABC News’ “This Week” Sunday, though health experts say a vaccine won’t be widely available to most Americans until mid-2021.
The US on Friday passed 9 million coronavirus cases, adding a million new Covid-19 cases only 14 days after the nation hit 8 million cases. The number of daily Covid-19 cases in the US also hit a new record on Friday when health officials reported 91,744 cases – the highest single day number of cases recorded for any country.
In total, the US has more than 9.1 million cases and over 230,500 deaths due to Covid-19, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University.
In swings through the Midwest and Pennsylvania ahead of Election Day, Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden have offered contrasting messages about the pandemic.
Campaigning with Biden in Michigan Saturday, former President Barack Obama sharply criticized Trump’s approach to the coronavirus, arguing that if “Trump were focused on Covid from the beginning, cases wouldn’t be reaching new record highs across the country.”
CNN’s Daniel Dale, Susannah Cullinane and Nicole Chavez contributed to this report.
