Is delusion a symptom of the novel coronavirus? If so, would somebody please test Sen. Martha McSally?

McSally appeared on Fox News on Thursday to praise President Donald Trump for his “decisiveness” and “leadership” in handling of the global pandemic that is now sweeping across America.

Arizona’s Republican senator was specifically pleased with Wednesday’s night’s speech.

“I appreciate the president talking to the American people from the Oval Office to show his decisiveness, resolve, compassion and leadership that America has and that we are the best equipped to deal with this crisis that started in China,” she said.

Is she kidding?

Why weren't we testing people?

Had America been prepared with test kits, public health officials might have been able to contain the virus. Instead, we’re scrambling to catch up to countries like South Korea.

South Korea is testing 10,000 people a day. Total testing in the U.S. has yet to reach even 15,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This, even though the first U.S. case of COVID-19 was detected on Jan. 20.

While McSally was praising the president’s decisive leadership on Thursday morning, one of the nation’s top infectious diseases experts was on Capitol Hill, telling a congressional committee the U.S. is “failing” to provide adequate testing for the coronavirus.

“The system is not really geared to what we need right now, what you are asking for. That is a failing,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the House Oversight on Reform Committee. "It is a failing. Let's admit it."

Fauci went on, responding to a question about who ultimately was responsible for overseeing the testing:

“The idea of anybody getting it, easily, the way people in other countries are doing it, we’re not set up for that. Do I think we should be? Yes. But we’re not.”

Even Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., acknowledged “a growing frustration among members as a whole to get more definitive answers" from the administration about testing capabilities.

It's way too late for a travel ban

Meanwhile, chaos erupted at airports across Europe as Americans mobbed the terminals worried about getting home before the travel ban goes into effect at midnight Friday – and for good reason, if you watched Trump’s speech.

“We will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days,” Trump announced, though he said there would be “exemptions for Americans who have undergone appropriate screenings.”

While Trump announced that all travel from Europe would be restricted, U.S. officials later clarified that the ban affects foreigners who were in 26 European countries within 14 days prior to traveling to the U.S.

And though Trump announced the ban would include "trade and cargo" from Europe, the White House later said it wouldn’t.

Left unclear is how closing our borders to other countries will help when the virus is already here and spreading fast – to 44 states now.

“There’s little value to European travel restrictions,” Tom Bossert, Trump’s former homeland security adviser, said in a series of tweets Thursday. “Poor use of time and energy. Earlier, yes. Now, travel restrictions/screening are less useful. We have nearly as much disease here in the US as the countries in Europe.”

Blindsided, outraged and confused

Count the European Union among the flummoxed by Trump’s “leadership” – not to mention blindsided, outraged and just plain puzzled.

“The coronavirus is a global crisis, not limited to any continent and it requires cooperation rather than unilateral action,” EU Council President Charles Michel and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a joint statement Thursday morning.

Europeans aren’t the only ones confused by Trump's approach, which from the start has been driven less by science than by politics and paranoia that this virus is somehow an underhanded trick by Democrats to undermine his re-election.

Fortunately, he has McSally, who is touting “his decisiveness, resolve, compassion and leadership” on the coronavirus.

Can someone get the senator tested?

Oh wait …

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com.