Sunday School Extra Credit 3/22/20

Time for some Extra Credit for all you Sunday Schoolers and Monday morning quarterbacks. 

Let's pick up with the gang at This Week with George Stephanopoulos, with Martha Raddatz sitting in for George. Among her guests? FEMA Director Peter Gaynor, and she wasted no time getting to the issues. 

FEMA's mission, she said, is to "prepare for, prevent, respond to and recover from disaster." And how does that jive with "healthcare workers desperate for critical supplies?" Gaynor tried to tap dance, saying 

It's a -- it's a great question, Martha. And, you know, my role today is -- is about today; it's about tomorrow; and it's about where we are in two weeks. My job is to bring together whole of government, whole of nation, to include our business partners to make sure that we can navigate our way out of this. And that's what we're doing every day. So when it comes to things like supplies, we are shipping supplies -- we shipped yesterday; we shipped today; we're going to ship tomorrow. We're going to try to meet every need in the nation. But a word of caution. The supplies that governors are looking for are the same supplies that every other country in the world is looking for. So this is a global problem. It's a national problem. And, again, we're working hard every day here to meet those demands.

Raddatz acknowledged his hard work, but wondered, as everyone else has been, when they would be in the hands of people that need them, and she used a clip of Gaynor himself saying "they're out there now." So, she asked, how many of them and when will they be distributed.

They have been distributed. They've been distributed over the past couple weeks. They're shipping today. They'll ship tomorrow. We find more and more masks to ship because we have -- developing great partnerships with the commercial sector out there, through donations, ramping up production. So, again, they have been shipping. We are trying to focus those shipments on the most critical hot spots in the country, places like New York City, Washington state, California. That is our priorities.

And, Raddatz wondered, will they get where they're needed in time, before the system is overwhelmed? When Gaynor repeated that "they" are being shipped, she tried to pin him down.

Well, I mean, there's hundreds of thousands of -- millions of things that we're shipping from the stockpile. I mean, I can't give you the details about what every single state or what every single city's doing. But -- but I'm telling you that we are shipping from our national stockpile. We're shipping from vendors. We're shipping from donations. It is happening. The demand is great. The demand from the governors is great. The demand around the world is great. And I -- I have the best experts here. I have a two-star general from the Joint Staff here, logistics, that is helping me solve these problems, plus many other from government. We are in this 100 percent.

She continued to push him on the supplies, particularly on the strategic stockpile and why all of those haven't been distributed, if they haven't. 

Again, there are still supplies in the stockpile. We are shipping all those supplies to all the demands, all the asks from all the governors every day. We are -- we're prepared to go to zero in the stockpile to meet demand. Again, this is a whole of government effort. And if could -- if I could just, you know, and this is shared responsibility. I know the president, Dr. Fauci talked about testing. You know, if you don't need a test, if you don't have symptoms, please don't get a test. Because the demand for PPE on unnecessary testing is -- is something that's working against us. So we're all in it together. Every American has a role to play. And we ask you, if you need to get a test and you have symptoms, go get it. If you just want to test to make yourself feel better, please don't do that.

We'll take a moment to note that VP Mike Pence is just one person who had an unnecessary test. 

While the White House doctor has indicated that he has no reason to believe I was exposed and no need to get tested, given the unique position that I have as vice president, and as the leader of the White House coronavirus task force, both I and my wife will be tested for the coronavirus.

The conversation on masks continued in the same vein. and then Raddatz asked why FEMA had just been brought on to the task force, and wondered if his agency's involvement should have "ramped up sooner" and why it didn't.  

Well, you know, I'm not going to look back at, you know, what should have been done, what wasn't done. And we can do that at a later time. Again, my focus as the lead for coordinating federal operations is on -- is on today. We can look back at another date. My -- my eyes are focused today, tomorrow, the next day, in order to beat this coronavirus.

She then asked about the "ominous classified warnings beginning in January" from the intelligence community about the "global dangers" of the virus, while the administration (and the president personally) were downplaying things. Quoting an article in the Washington Post which said "Donald Trump may not have been expecting this, but a lot of other people in the government were. They just couldn't get him to do anything about it. The system was blinking red." she asked if Gaynor knew about the warnings, "and if not, why not?" 

You know, when it comes to public health emergencies, you know, HHS has been the lead for that. They kind of own that mission. I -- I was not part of any of those discussions, whether they're purported or factual.

Raddatz was incredulous.

I want to go back to your mission again. It's to lead America and to prepare for it. You had no indication? The worldwide threat assessment of 2019 said “we assess that the United States will remain vulnerable to the next flu pandemic or large-scale outbreak of a contagious disease that could lead to massive rates of death and disability, severely affect the world economy, and strain international resources…” So is it really fair to say you had no warning about this, really?

And Gaynor? He was, well, he was exactly what we would expect him to be after listening to the rest of the interview.  

Again, you know, the public health medical mission, statutory lies with HHS. My mission, FEMA, prior to this, natural disasters and those catastrophic events that happen. Now it's a different world. Now HHS and FEMA are locked arm in arm, plus many other agencies from around government to include our private partners. And today I'm trying to focus on today and tomorrow and where we want to be in a couple weeks. That is my mission.

And what'll things be like in a couple of weeks, will we see a big change, Raddatz asked.

Well, again, I think every American has a role to play. I think the 15 days -- do what you can do to help yourself, help your family, help your neighborhood, help your business. You know, do those things that are simple. Stay indoors if you're sick. Don't go to work. You know, wash your hands. Don't touch surfaces. All those things make a difference. This is every American playing their role to make sure that we can beat the coronavirus. That -- that's as simple as I can make it.

I can't be the only one with "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job" ricocheting around inside my head, can I? 

Keep your distance - wash your hands - don't touch things.  See you around the virtual campus.