President Donald Trump says his administration’s coronavirus task force will continue indefinitely, a day after the White House floated the notion of winding it down.
Trump, in a series of tweets Wednesday morning, said the task force will continue with a focus on reopening the country, as well as development of vaccines and therapeutic treatments. “We may add or subtract people to it, as appropriate,” Trump said, without elaborating.
….produced in the thousands, and we have many to spare. We are helping other countries which are desperate for them. Likewise, after having been left little, we are now doing more testing than all other countries combined, and with superior tests. Face masks & shields,….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 6, 2020
….to it, as appropriate. The Task Force will also be very focused on Vaccines & Therapeutics. Thank you!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 6, 2020
Trump’s tweets come after a series of statements from the White House on Tuesday that the task force, led by Vice President Mike Pence, may be shuttered.
“Mike Pence and the task force have done a great job, but we’re now looking at a little bit of a different form,” Trump said during an event in Phoenix on Tuesday. “We’re having conversations about that,” Pence had said earlier in Washington.
Trump struck up the task force in late January before putting Pence in charge about a month later. Members of the task force held daily news briefings for weeks, but those were dialed back after April 24, when Trump was ridiculed after musing about treating coronavirus patients with light and disinfectant.
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