Sen. Mitt Romney criticized the United States’ efforts on coronavirus testing, saying it was “nothing to celebrate” during a Senate hearing on Tuesday.
Romney’s comments came one day after President Donald Trump declared victory in the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, claiming the US had “prevailed on testing.”
Romney was questioning Admiral Brett Giror, assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services when he launched a broadside against the administration’s testing efforts.
“Yesterday you celebrated that we had done more tests and more tests per capita than South Korea. But you ignored the fact that what they accomplished there is at the beginning of the outbreak, while we treaded water during February and March,” said Romney. “As a result, by March 6, the US had completed just 2,000 tests while South Korea conducted more than 140,000.”
“As a result of that, they have 256 deaths and we have almost 80,000 deaths. I find our testing record nothing to celebrate whatsoever. Their numbers are going down because they don’t have the kind of outbreak we have. Ours are going up and up. I think that’s an important lesson for us as we think about the future.”
Watch the clip below via CNN:
