A new poll released on Tuesday has made one thing clear: Americans want more testing before reopening. The new poll, conducted by Marist, National Public Radio and PBS Newshour concluded that a majority of Americans overwhelmingly oppose the reopening of businesses, restaurants and sporting events until testing is more widely available. Trump’s new testing plan released on Monday offers no assurances that the federal government has a plan to ramp up testing the necessary levels and it may not increase testing at all. Trump’s failure to establish an advanced testing program has left Americans with little hope about a safe reopening strategy.
Despite Calls By Trump And Republican Governors To Reopen, An Overwhelming Majority Of Americans Oppose Reopening Without Further Testing
80% Or More Of Americans Oppose Reopening Schools, Restaurants And Large Sport Evening Without Advanced Testing. “Eighty percent or more of people who responded do not want schools, restaurants or large sporting events to start taking place as normal again until there is further testing.” [NPR, 4/29/20]
Two-Thirds Of Americans Oppose Physically Returning To Work Without Advanced Testing. “And two-thirds don’t want Americans to physically go back to work without that widespread testing, but a majority of Republicans do.” [NPR, 4/29/20]
While Experts And The Public Call For A Massive Scaling Up Of Testing, Trump’s New Plan Offers Nothing New And May Not Increase Testing At All
Vox: America Still Needs More Coronavirus Testing. Trump’s New Plan Falls Short
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Vox: “It Says Nothing Specific About What Steps — If Any — The Federal Government Will Take To Increase The Number Of Tests, Instead Passing The Buck To Others.” “President Donald Trump’s new coronavirus testing overview and blueprint, announced Monday, read a lot like an abdication. The plan offers little in the way of actual assurances to the states while insisting that most of the work of scaling up testing will be left to them. It calls on states to develop their own plans and identify hurdles on their own. It says nothing specific about what steps — if any — the federal government will take to increase the number of tests, instead passing the buck to others. The federal government, the plan says, is merely a ‘supplier of last resort.’” [Vox, 4/28/20]
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Vox: “In Fact, It’s Not Clear If The Plan Will Significantly Increase Testing.” “In fact, it’s not clear if the plan will significantly increase testing. In unveiling the plan on Monday, administration officials promised the US will reach at least 8 million tests a month by the end of May. That’s roughly 260,000 tests a day — barely more than the 220,000 a day that the US already averaged over the past week, based on the Covid Tracking Project, which is compiling testing numbers for every state. Experts say far more testing is needed. On the low end, they’ve called for at least 500,000 tests a day. At the high end, some have called for as many as tens of millions of tests a day, which they say would let public health officials truly track and subsequently contain the full outbreak without as much social distancing.” [Vox, 4/28/20]
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Vox: “The Only Way That Level Of Investment In Testing Will Happen, Particularly As Cities And States Deal With Tight Budgets, Is If The Federal Government Gets More Involved.” “This much testing is, however, expensive. Paul Romer, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, has projected that the US needs more than 20 million tests each day, effectively letting the country test each person in the country every two weeks. He estimated that would cost $100 billion — which may sound like a lot, but it pales in comparison to the cost of keeping the economy shut down. But the only way that level of investment in testing will happen, particularly as cities and states deal with tight budgets, is if the federal government gets more involved. Congress already allocated $25 billion to testing and contact tracing in a recent bill, which will start to chip away at the gaps but falls short of Romer’s proposal.” [Vox, 4/28/20]
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Vox: “Every Major Plan To Combat The Pandemic And Pull Back Social Distancing Relies On Testing To Fully Understand The Extent Of The Outbreak And Keep It In Check.” “This is a giant obstacle to safely reopening the economy. Every major plan to combat the pandemic and pull back social distancing relies on testing to fully understand the extent of the outbreak and keep it in check. Without that, the only options are more social distancing, with the economic harm that entails, or letting the pandemic run its course — at the cost of potentially hundreds of thousands or millions of lives. The White House, however, has offered no concrete answers on what the country will do next to fix this problem.” [Vox, 4/28/20]
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Vox: “Other Countries, Like South Korea And Germany, Have Paired High Levels Of Testing With Aggressive Contact Tracing To Control Their Outbreaks.” “Other countries, like South Korea and Germany, have paired high levels of testing with aggressive contact tracing to control their outbreaks. A report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and Association of State and Territorial Health estimated the US will need to hire 100,000 contact tracers — far above what states and federal officials have so far said they’re hiring. A phone app could help cut down on the need for quite as many tracers, but it’s unclear if Americans have the appetite for an app that will effectively track their every move.” [Vox, 4/28/20]
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Vox: “Instead Of Calling For A Bigger Investment And Strong Federal Leadership, It Leaves A Bulk Of The Work To States, Calling On Them To Set Up Their Own Plans And Identify And Fix Their Own Problems.” “This will, again, require a significant federal investment — to the tune of tens of billions more dollars. States and cities, cash-strapped due to the economic downturn, simply don’t have the financial means to act on their own. They also have little influence over how, for example, to fix supply shortages that are originating in other cities and states. Trump’s testing overview and blueprint simply don’t provide assurances on these fronts. Instead of calling for a bigger investment and strong federal leadership, it leaves a bulk of the work to states, calling on them to set up their own plans and identify and fix their own problems. The federal government, with its ‘guidelines,’ ‘strategic direction,’ and ‘technical assistance,’ will largely play a supplemental role.” [Vox, 4/28/20]