The lost month: Trump says he took ?strong action? in February to stop coronavirus. Here?s the full picture.

Some experts say even that pace is optimistic, because vaccine studies typically take much longer.February 14: CDC announced their ongoing work with five laboratories to perform community-based influenza surveillance and study the spread of coronavirus.Trump was at Mar-a-Lago when the CDC made this announcement about expanded testing.That same day, HHS and the White House National Security Council produced a memo warning that stay-at-home orders and widespread closures could become part of the nationwide effort to stop Covid-19 from spreading, according to The New York Times.These warnings turned into a reality just weeks later, when much of the country was shut down to enforce social distancing. The letter said the existing guidelines were preventing labs from running validated coronavirus tests and putting “undue pressure on the CDC,” which was scrambling to remanufacture its tests after the initial ones distributed in early February were found to be faulty.Jeremy Konyndyk, an expert on global pandemic preparedness now with the Center for Global Development, told CNN the Trump administration’s initial reliance on the CDC’s test caused a delay in the country’s ability to test for the virus and allowed it to spread relatively unchecked.February 29: The Administration issued travel warnings for parts of South Korea and Italy.Pence announced the US was raising the travel warning to level 4, its highest, and cautioning Americans against traveling to South Korea and Italy. The new travel warning came as public health officials in Washington state announced the first coronavirus death inside the United States.February 29: President Trump issued a proclamation expanding entry restrictions on individuals who had visited Iran in the last 14 days.Coming almost a month after Trump blocked foreigners who visited China from entering the US, this proclamation was the second travel restriction the President issued as part of his efforts to stop the spread of coronavirus.