Dr. Vivek Murthy, former U.S. surgeon general under the Obama administration, expressed some frustration with the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic.

“Unfortunately, we were a bit late to recognize how bad this was as a country,” Murthy said on Yahoo Finance’s The Ticker. “We have been late, also, when it comes to ramping up testing, which we desperately need. And we’re also still having trouble getting the materials, particularly the protective equipment that health care providers need. We’re making progress over the last month, but it’s unfortunately nowhere near where it needs to be if we want to feel safe to relax social distancing restrictions.”

View photos U.S. President Donald Trump reacts to a question during the daily coronavirus task force briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 4, 2020. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY More

Initially, President Trump dismissed the threat of the pandemic, telling reporters in a news conference on February 27 that the virus was “going to disappear.” By March 4, he acknowledged the issue in the U.S. but said that some people would have it “at a very light level” without needing to see a doctor or hospital, and eventually get better. Then on March 17, he said: “I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.”

These mixed signals have caused confusion for many states, with some governors implementing strict shelter-at-home orders, while others have been more lenient. Two-thirds of Americans believe the Trump administration’s response was too slow.

As of April 17, all but five states have stay-at-home orders put in place, with North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, and Arkansas being the holdouts. In Utah, Wyoming, and Oklahoma, these orders are only for parts of the state. These will remain in place until individual governors decide to reopen states.

View photos Most states have stay-at-home orders in place. (Graphic: David Foster/Yahoo Finance) More

‘We do need the federal government to be more aggressive’

The U.S. response to the coronavirus has particularly struggled with a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) for health care workers, testing kit shortages, and not enough ventilators.

“What we really need both with testing and when it comes to the protective equipment is we do need the federal government to be more aggressive in stepping in and taking over the supply, the production, as well as the distribution piece of this,” Murthy said.

View photos A caregiver wearing personal protective equipment walks past an ambulance outside the Eastpointe Rehab and Skilled Care Center amid the coronavirus disease outbreak in Chelsea, Massachusetts. REUTERS/Brian Snyder More

He continued: “We do need a wartime production board like we saw with World War Two to ensure that we’re coordinating all levers within this country to respond to this unprecedented pandemic but that we’re also doing so in a way that’s accountable and that’s still having results.”