Mick Mulvaney calls US coronavirus testing capabilities ‘simply inexcusable’

Ex-chief of staff changes his tune, after claiming media reports on Covid-19 were designed to damage Donald Trump

Mick Mulvaney has criticised the US response to coronavirus and called the state of the country’s testing capabilities “simply inexcusable”.

The former acting White House chief of staff from 2019 until March 2020, who currently serves as the special envoy for Northern Ireland, criticised the US approach in an op-ed for CNBC.

“I know it isn’t popular to talk about in some Republican circles, but we still have a testing problem in this country,” Mr Mulvaney wrote on Tuesday.

“My son was tested recently; we had to wait five to seven days for results. My daughter wanted to get tested before visiting her grandparents, but was told she didn’t qualify. That is simply inexcusable at this point in the pandemic.”

In response to Mr Mulvaney’s claims, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany pointed to the amount of testing that the US has carried out.

“We lead the world in testing. We’ve done more 40 million tests. It’s an extraordinary number,” she said, and added: “Leading the world in testing, I would say, means we’re doing a pretty good job.”

However, data shows that the number of tests carried out per 1,000 people in the US does not put it at the top of the chart.

Donald Trump has boasted about the American testing regime – but also blamed it for the dramatic rise in coronavirus cases. More tests equal more cases, he has said.

Mr Mulvaney’s op-ed represents an about-face from his claim in February that the media was only paying attention to the coronavirus outbreak to damage his old boss. “They think this is going to be what brings down the president,” he said at the time.

According to Johns Hopkins University some 3.3 million people have tested positive for coronavirus in the US. The death toll has reached 135,205.