Trump to visit CDC headquarters: reports
By Justine Coleman - 03/01/20 01:26 PM EST
President Trump is expected to visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters on Friday, Politico first reported.
An administration official told CNN that officials had considered bringing Trump to the headquarters earlier in the coronavirus outbreak, but plans were never finalized.
It is unclear if Vice President Mike Pence, whom Trump put in charge of the administration’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, will join the president on the trip.
The Hill reached out to the White House for confirmation.
Trump will head to the CDC after he has butted heads with Nancy Messonnier, the director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
Messonnier had previously said a coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. is inevitable.
"It's not so much of a question of if this will happen anymore but rather more of a question of exactly when this will happen," she said.
The president said Messonnier’s remarks caused unnecessary panic.
The first U.S. fatality from the novel coronavirus was confirmed this weekend after a man in Washington state passed away. Robert Redfield, the CDC director, said the deceased man caught the virus through community spread. There are 72 cases identified in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins University data.
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https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/public-global-health/485371-trump-to-visit-cdc-headquarters-reports
