The United States cannot be "hermetically" sealed from the growing coronavirus epidemic, but according to the Centers for Disease Control, the risk to Americans remains low, Rep. Will Hurd said Thursday, warning it is important not to "play politics" with the situation.
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention do regular updates for members of Congress and those updates are provided to the public," Hurd told CNN's "New Day." "Locally my hometown in San Antonio is dealing with this. Lackland Air Force Base is a place where people are being quarantined. And you have five cases of people with the coronavirus got it outside of the United States and were ultimately brought here."
Meanwhile, it is important the government remain transparent about the disease, unlike the Chinese leaders have been.
"They're not used to being transparent, and when you're dealing with something of this severity, transparency is important, especially when it's a global health risk," Hurd said.
The Chinese have kept World Health Organization scientists out of the country for several weeks, he added, preventing scientists from gathering details that could have helped lead to a vaccine sooner.
"In cases like this, in order to contain you have to move quickly," he said. "If there would have been more information, we could have been moving sooner."
Hurd said he does think the United States is making a rapid, transparent effort, however.
"When it comes to the government response, the government response is being led by HHS and CDC," Hurd said. "The threats of COVID19 are potentially high, and there are steps that communities should be taking. We know the basics. Wash your hands, don't travel to China, don't travel to Italy. Don't travel until they're able to get the spread over the virus."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2023 Newsmax. All rights reserved.