Good GQ article on the subject. It starts of criticizing Trump (with little real supporting evidence), then goes on to show that the delay was bureaucratic from the FDA's procedures.
At one point they wouldn't consider an application for an emergency authorization b/c he had submitted online but he hadn't submitted hardcopies by mail.
Clearly they didn't see it as a threat either, not at that level.
https://www.gq.com/story/inside-amer...=pocket-newtab
Even the WHO test thing it's not clear that was "Trump" or if it was people in the bureaucracy saying the CDC needed to do it. Right now we don't know if he ignored advice from people or in fact was listening to their advice. I can easily see people at the FDA or CDC thinking they didn't trust a WHO test,and frankly I can't say I would disagree with them given the state of the UN's bias.
But it is clear that until this became such a threat it was being processed using procedures that are simply not time critical. Thus the FDA only approving the CDC for testing, etc.
Most of this delay seems to have not come from the White House as much as from the various agencies who were following procedures that work well in normal times but were far too cumbersome and even far too safety focused for a real crisis.
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