CNN "The Lead with Jake Tapper" - Transcript: Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) is Interviewed About the Coronavirus Response
Interview
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Joining me now is Congressman Mark Takano of California whose district contains the Air Reserve base in Riverside County where this took place.
Congressman, thanks so much for being here.
REP. MARK TAKANO (D-CA): Thanks, Jake.
TAPPER: So, how concerned are you that these health workers might have inadvertently played a role in spreading the coronavirus?
TAKANO: Well, I'm very concerned. The first 195 evacuees from Wuhan came to Riverside County.
And I want to emphasize, there are no confirmed cases among the evacuees -- the cohort of evacuees that I know of. But that's one of my questions to HHS and CDC, is how do you track these 195 evacuees who did not show any symptoms? My concern is that not all of them were tested.
I had assumed that this cohort was accompanied by public service health workers from HHS and that they were properly trained and that they were even equipped with protective equipment since they were on the plane.
TAPPER: One would think.
TAKANO: And I'm not sure -- these are the answers that I need. And in our briefing, in our bipartisan briefing this morning, I posed that question, and it wasn't satisfactorily answered. I don't want to put that as a -- as a pejorative or negative on Dr.
Kadlecik (ph) or Dr. Redfield, both of whom I thought were very -- very forthright and forthcoming when they -- when they informed me the day before that the 195 passengers from Wuhan were going to arrive in my district.
TAPPER: So, I guess one of the big questions is how does this happen where health care workers dispatched by HHS don't have training or protective gear?
TAKANO: Well, you know, that's the question that I want to ask. I don't want to speculate. I will say that my office, and my team, that we cooperated with the Department of Health and Human Services and the CDC, and we did our -- we did our part to get information out.
We -- during the 14-day quarantine in Riverside County, we published a bulletin every day transmitting to our constituents, my constituents, what we knew and what we were able to learn from the government sources.
And it calmed people down when they got information. It's so important for this government to keep credibility and to keep that faith with the American people, and I'm afraid that this is getting so political and so politicized and the president of the United States I think is not demonstrating the kind of leadership that needs to be demonstrated. We need cool-headedness, levelheadedness, and most of all, we need honesty and straight answers.
TAPPER: I agree. At least 50 residents in your district are quarantined over potential coronavirus exposure. More than 8,400 people in California are under similar quarantine across the state. Are you bracing for an outbreak in California?
TAKANO: Well, that's another question that I have.
[16:35:01]
Are we prepared? Do we have the facilities for people to be isolated if they are testing positive for coronavirus?
So, look, a couple of things that came up today in this morning's briefing is the question of cost and whether people have adequate insurance, whether they have bought these skinny plans that are on waivers by this government, by this administration.
People wanted to -- there was a case of someone in Florida who thought they might have coronavirus, went to get tested and was slapped with a $3,000 bill. So, that's -- you can see, we've not -- my district and adjoining districts, mixed households of citizens, permanent residents and undocumented, and if the public charge that's hanging other their head, if they use public health facilities, that that could be used against them in an immigration proceeding, you can see how that's going to inhibit people --
TAPPER: Yes.
TAKANO: -- from getting treated.
So, there's a broader way -- a broad array of public health concerns --
TAPPER: Yes.
TAKANO: --and policies that need to be reviewed in light of this potential emergency.
TAPPER: It's a real recipe for real potential disaster.
TAKANO: Yes.
TAPPER: Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
Congressman Takano, thank you so much for being here.
TAKANO: Thank you. Thank you.
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