President Donald Trump released his 2021 budget proposal Monday. In it, the president slashed the proposed appropriation for the Centers for Disease Control and Management by 16 percent as the agency works to fight the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Medical ethicist Arthur Caplan told Boston Public Radio on Thursday the Trump administration's proposals would put Americans at risk.
In addition to the budget cuts he proposed, Trump also told supporters at a New Hampshire rally that the disease would go away by April, when it gets warmer.
"The best defense against an epidemic, whether it’s coronavirus or swine flu or avian flu or Ebola, is to have a strong public health system to get int here and isolate or quarantine, or if we’re lucky enough to get a vaccine, distribute vaccines, and to have a good hospital system," said Caplan. "Trump, his plan seems to be, well when the warm weather comes, the coronavirus will go away."
Caplan is the Drs. William F and Virginia Connolly Mitty Chair, and director of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center.
