As federal health officials warned this week that the coronavirus outbreak is likely to grow into a pandemic, rhetoric about how to prepare for the inevitable turned political.
“We have contained this,” said Larry Kudlow, President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser, said during an interview with CNBC. “I won’t say airtight, but pretty close to airtight.”
Candidates for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination described how they would respond to the new coronavirus outbreak and called the Trump administration unprepared at Tuesday night’s debate.
Right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh claimed on his show Monday that coronavirus is nothing more than a “common cold” blown out of proportion by the media to take down Trump ― even as he also asserted it was a “bioweapon” created by China in a laboratory.
But who does all of this political finger-pointing benefit? Probably no one. Fortunately, according to Dr. Anne Schuchat, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's principal deputy director, there's "literally a playbook" on how to respond to such a health risk, at the federal and local levels. Check it out below. | 
