<![CDATA[US coronavirus cases could hit 'many millions', a top health official tells Congress]>

A leading US health official testified at a Congressional hearing on the coronavirus outbreak Wednesday that the number of people sickened by the virus in the US could hit "many millions" if appropriate steps were not taken.

"We will see more cases, and things will get worse than they are right now," Dr Anthony Fauci " the widely respected director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases " warned members of the House Oversight Committee.

"How much worse we'll get will depend on our ability to do two things: to contain the influx of people who are infected coming from the outside, and the ability to contain and mitigate within our own country."

Also testifying were Robert Redfield, director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The hearing before the House Oversight Committee devolved into a partisan fray when Democrat and Republican members sparred over who was "politicising" missteps in the government's response to the outbreak " including the delay in widespread testing that is now seen as a key reason for a nationwide surge in infections.

President Donald Trump's public remarks and tweets were a key subject of contention, as Democrats harshly criticised the Republican president for falsely claiming that a vaccine could be available in months and for his rambling news conference at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta last week.

Gerald Connolly, a Virginia Democrat, chastised Mark Green, Republican of Tennessee, for urging the bipartisan committee not to politicise the hearing.

"We aren't the ones that called the alarm being raised about this pandemic as fake news. That came out of the president of the United States' mouth. No gaslighting is going to hide that," Connolly said in comments directed at Green.

He took particular issue with Trump wearing a "Keep America Great" cap " re-election campaign apparel " at last week's CDC press gaggle.

"We will not be lectured about politicisation and all of your words and sanctimony will not cover up the fact that this administration was not prepared for this crisis and it puts lives at risk," Connolly said.

Green called Democrats' comments unfair, asserting that the Trump administration had begun responding to the outbreak a week after China in late December declared a public health emergency in the city of Wuhan " the epicentre of the pandemic that now has infected more than 120,000 people and caused more than 4,000 deaths worldwide.

"Yet, according to the leadership of the other party, our president has failed us. Months of response, and yet they are accusing our president of failing us," Green said.

Stephen Lynch, Democrat of Massachusetts, also targeted Trump's off-tangent CDC news conference, asking whether US health officials " including Redfield and Fauci " were doing enough to counter the president's "bizarre" remarks.

"I want to be with my Republican colleagues, but when the president says he has uncle in the 1930s [who was a professor of electrical engineering] and that he has a natural affinity for [epidemiology], it's going to raise red flags," Lynch said.

"We really need honesty. When the president is making statements like that, we need push-back from the public health officials. Standing behind him and nodding silently or an eyeroll is not going to cut it."

Fauci responded: "I appreciate your comments but I can tell you absolutely I tell the president, the vice-president, everyone in the task force what exactly the data is, and what the evidence is.

"I have never, ever, held back telling exactly what is going on."

Drawing particular scrutiny was the federal delay in expanding testing for the virus " a consequence of a decision made early on to use a CDC-designed diagnostic kit instead of the World Health Organisation test kit that is being used by many other countries.

Limited production of the CDC-designed tests in the early days as well as its faulty control mechanism meant that testing in the US was severely limited until recently, when the shortcomings were addressed and states were permitted to employ commercial tests that received emergency authorisation by the FDA.

Robert Redfield, director of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, speaks as Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, listens during a House Oversight Committee hearing in Washington on Wednesday. Photo: Bloomberg alt=Robert Redfield, director of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, speaks as Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, listens during a House Oversight Committee hearing in Washington on Wednesday. Photo: Bloomberg

Redfield said that with the entry of the commercial tests, the kinks would be ironed out, and reiterated assertions by Vice-President Mike Pence, who is leading the White House's coronavirus task force, that up to four million tests would be available by the end of the week.

But Raja Krishnamoorthi, an Illinois Democrat, said that the CDC chief was "passing the buck to the private sector".

The proceeding was recessed after two hours as Fauci and other officials scheduled to testify were summoned to the White House for an urgent meeting.

The committee chairwoman, Carolyn Maloney, Democrat of New York, requested that the officials return in the afternoon, but it was unclear if they would be able to, since they were also scheduled to attend a meeting of Vice-President Pence's task force later in the day.

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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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