President Trump Declares National Emergency As Coronavirus Pandemic Grows
source:https://www.krcc.org/post/watch-trump-discuss-coronavirus-amid-growing-crisis-scrutiny-his-response
President Trump on Friday declared that the coronavirus pandemic is a national emergency, a designation that frees up as much as $50 billion in federal assistance to state and local governments overwhelmed by the spread of the virus, and makes it easier to surge medical resources to areas that need them most.
overwhelmed by the spread of the virus被病毒传播淹没的
After weeks of criticism over a shortage of diagnostic tests for the virus, Trump and his officials worked to assure anxious Americans that it would soon be easy for people showing symptoms to get tested, describing a surge in test production, and a website that would direct people to drive-through test sites set up in Walmart parking lots.
direct 指导人们
Markets rose as Trump spoke in the White House Rose Garden for more than an hour at the end of a week marked by school closures, sports event cancellations, directives to work from home, and cleared-out store shelves as people rush to stockpile basic goods.
“This will pass,” Trump declared, “this will pass through and we’re going to be even stronger for it.”
Trump thanked Google for helping to develop a website, saying it would be “very quickly done, unlike websites of the past” — a veiled shot at the healthcare.gov insurance website started by the former Obama administration, which was marred by extensive problems when it launched. “We’ll be announcing locations probably on Sunday night,” he said.
veiled shot 影射Obama政府
marred 损坏
Deborah Birx, a scientist who is part of the White House task force on the pandemic, brandished a flow chart to announce “this new approach to testing” that she said was “facilitated by Google” to help screen patients and direct them to testing sites.
facilitated 促成 便利
facilitated by Google Google促成
screen patients 筛查患者
direct them to testing sites. 指导他们前往测试点
But after the announcement, Google said its life sciences division, called Verily, was only in the “early stages” of rolling a website in California’s Bay Area.
life sciences division 生命科学部门
Asked about the discrepancy, a White House official told NPR: “The Trump administration is working with Google to develop a website Americans can go to determine whether a test is needed and, if so, facilitate testing at a nearby location. We expect to have more details in the days ahead.”
determine 确定 判断
Trump rebuffed critics of his administration’s response, saying he inherited a system that wasn’t able to respond quickly enough. Asked whether he took responsibility for the lag in making tests available for the coronavirus. Trump responded, “I don’t take responsibility at all.”
rebuffed 拒绝
Trump also said he was not responsible for dismantling a pandemic office inside the White House National Security Council, scolding a reporter for asking what he called “a nasty question.”
“I didn’t do it,” he said. “I don’t know anything about it.”