Press Call This Morning Detailed How Trump Administration Caused Testing Crisis in US, Why Country Needs a National Testing Strategy
Listen to Audio of Call Here
On a press call this morning, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, along with Yale University Professor of Public Health (Health Policy), Management and Economics Dr. Howard Forman and Protect Our Care’s Coronavirus War Room detailed how the mismanagement of the coronavirus response by the Trump administration has led to a testing crisis in the US, and why the country needs a national testing strategy.
“From the start of this crisis, families in my home state of Washington have been asking ‘where are the tests?’ We know now without a doubt the Trump Administration’s early testing delays and missteps cost us dearly, in time and lives. So it’s entirely inexcusable that two months later we are still asking ‘where are the tests?’ In fact, unbelievably, we are still asking ‘where is the plan to increase testing?’” said Senator Murray. “The so-called testing ‘blueprint’ President Trump unveiled recently does nothing new and will accomplish nothing new—but we aren’t letting him off the hook. The legislation Congress passed last week included a provision I secured requiring the Trump Administration to provide a national plan to increase testing within 30 days. We’ve put President Trump on the clock, and we’re putting him on notice as well about what sort of detailed plan we expect to see here.”
“If from the very beginning of this outbreak in the United States we had access to adequate testing, we would have been able to stop the spread of this virus in its tracks the way that many other nations have,” said Dr. Howard Forman. “And now that we’re facing the biggest outbreak in the world, we’re still falling behind other nations. Testing isn’t just about figuring out who is sick and who isn’t for treatment. It’s about identifying which individuals would infect someone else, and that sort of testing simply isn’t happening in the United States right now. The bottom line is that we need to vastly increase testing in the United States in order to be at a level where we can begin to slow down further infections and start thinking about reopening our economy.”
“In the next week or so, Congress will start work on the next COVID response bill, and it’s critical that this bill protect our health, our people, and our economy,” said Leslie Dach, Chair of Protect Our Care. “Testing must be a key focus of that legislation. The legislation should also focus on making more protective equipment available for health care and essential workers, increase capabilities for contact tracing to mitigate further spread, and increase health care protections for the millions of Americans that are uninsured, have lost their jobs, or have contracted coronavirus. Congress should pass a special enrollment period so the uninsured can buy affordable coverage through the Affordable Care Act, and increase financial assistance to further lower costs. Congress should also protect the millions of Americans who now have a pre-existing condition because of the coronavirus, stopping junk insurance plans and the President’s efforts to overturn the ACA in the courts. The Trump administration is not doing the job in any of these areas, and because of that, Congress must.”
“The United States became the first country to reach a million confirmed coronavirus infections yesterday, more than 50,000 Americans have lost their lives, over 26 million are now unemployed, and somehow the Trump administration is calling their response a ‘great success story,’” said Zac Petkanas, Director of Protect Our Care’s Coronavirus War Room. “The truth is that Trump and his administration’s response is anything but a success — especially when it comes to testing. They made huge promises that they simply haven’t delivered, including that ‘anybody who wants a test can get a test.’ But they aren’t fooling anyone, the American people understand just how much this administration has failed on testing — and they blame Trump’s impulsive and chaotic decision making for it. It’s time for Trump to stop trying to spin his disastrous coronavirus record and take action to increase testing in America.”
BACKGROUND
For months, Donald Trump has dropped the ball on testing.
JANUARY
- Trump Administration Decided Not To Use Tests Adopted By The WHO. The Trump administration decided early on not to use the tests adopted by the World Health Organization, losing crucial time that the U.S. could have been testing and allowing coronavirus to spread undetected several weeks. (January 2020)
- Instead, Trump’s CDC Decided To Develop Its Own Test, Releasing Details 10 Days After The WHO And Allowing The Virus To Spread In the Meantime. The CDC published details for its coronavirus test ten days after the WHO published the details of its own test, at least two weeks after the virus had entered the U.S. (January 2020)
FEBRUARY
- By Early February, Public Health Labs Had Notified CDC Of A Problem With Its Test. By February 8, public health labs had started to notify the CDC of troubles with its test. Four days later, officials acknowledged the problem during a news conference. (February 8, 2020)
- Days Later, Trump’s CDC Instructed State Labs To Stop Using Their Tests Because Of Flaws. Because the CDC tests gave inconclusive results, the CDC instructed state labs to stop testing. By mid-February, the U.S. was only testing about 100 samples a day. (February 2020)
- The Shortage Of Functioning Tests Led The CDC To Impose Narrow Criteria About Who Could Get Tested. Because of the CDC’s limited testing capacity, it maintained extremely narrow testing criteria for weeks, only allowing people who had recently traveled to China or been in contact with someone who had the virus to be tested. This allowed the virus to spread without detection for weeks. (February 2020)
- The Lack Of Tests Meant Public Health Officials Could Not Use Surveillance Testing To Monitor The Virus’ Spread. Per the New York Times, the lack of coronavirus tests meant that local public health officials could not use the essential epidemiological tool of surveillance testing to see where the virus might be hiding by testing swab samples from people screened for the common flu for coronavirus. (February 2020)
- Weeks After The CDC Testing Debacle, Trump’s FDA Finally Relaxed Testing Rules Preventing The Approval Of Tests That Might Actually Work. Trump’s FDA finally relaxed testing rules after leaving independently developed coronavirus tests, including one developed by the University of Washington, on hold for as many as 11 days. (February 29, 2020)
MARCH
- By The Seventh Week, Trump HHS Secretary Alex Azar Promised 4 Million Tests But Delivered Only 25,200. Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar promised 4 million test kits would be available by the end of the following week — seven days later CDC and state health labs only had 25,200 tests. (March 6, 2020)
- CDC Continued Insisting Their Test Was “A Very Accurate Test” Weeks After Instructing State Labs To Stop Using It. As it became clear that the CDC’s tests were flawed, Trump’s CDC continued to insist that it had developed “a very accurate test.” (March 6, 2020)
- By The Eighth Week, South Korea Had Tested More Than Five Times As Many People As The U.S. Eight weeks after the first confirmed case in both South Korea and the United States, South Korea had tested 287,000 people for coronavirus and the United States had only tested 55,000 (March 17, 2020)
- Trump Coronavirus Task Force Exposed To Have Only Spent 5-10 Minutes Of Meetings To Talk About Testing. The New York Times reported that members of Trump’s coronavirus task force typically only devoted five to ten minutes, often at the end of contentious meetings, to discuss testing. (March 2020)
- The Trump Administration Expected To Have “Well Over 27 Million” Coronavirus Tests In The Market By March 28, 2020. Assistant Secretary for Health and Human Services Admiral Brett Giroir said of coronavirus tests at a White House press conference: “We expect that, by March 28th, to be well over 27 million into the market.” (March 21, 2020)
- Trump Claimed He Hadn’t “Heard About Testing Being A Problem” In Weeks. Trump claimed that he had not “heard about testing being a problem” in weeks, despite multiple state and local officials ringing the alarm about a lack of testing on a daily basis. (March 30, 2020)
APRIL
- Trump Said The U.S. Did Not Need A Nationwide Testing System Before Reopening The Economy. Contradicting experts, Trump said the U.S. did not need a nationwide testing system before he decided to reopen the economy. (April 9, 2020)
- Coronavirus Testing In The U.S. Plummeted By More Than 30 Percent. In mid-April, the number of coronavirus tests analyzed by commercial labs plummeted by more than 30 percent, even as experts called to significantly increase testing and infections were surging. Testing dropped as the CDC maintained excessively narrow criteria about who could get tested and labs reported shortages of crucial materials like testing swabs and reagents. (April 14, 2020)
- Shortages Of Materials Like Swabs Prevented Labs From Conducting Tests At Capacity. Commercial labs rang the alarm that they had unused testing capacity. American Clinical Laboratory Association President Julie Khani explained, “ACLA members have now eliminated testing backlogs, and have considerable capacity that is not being used.” One regional microbiology lab that serves seven St. Louis-area hospitals had the capacity to run 1,000 tests a day but only had 300 swabs in its lab. Through April 20th, lab directors said that supply chain problems were so severe they had to delay some testing because of it. (April 2020)
- A Senior Administration Official Said That When It Came To Trump Trying To Reopen The Economy, Testing Was “Just Not His Primary Thought.” One of Trump’s advisors explained that Trump was “determined to reopen the country. Testing is just not his primary thought.” (April 16, 2020)
- By Mid-April, There Was Still No Single Administration Official Working On Testing. The Washington Post reported that there was no single administration official working on testing — Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus coordinator, had been communicating with hospitals and states about testing protocols, while Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner had been running point with industry. (April 2020)
- Trump Delayed Invoking The Defense Production Act To Increase Production Of Supplies Needed To Conduct Tests Until Nearly 3 Months After The First Confirmed U.S. Coronavirus Case. Trump refused to invoke the Defense Production Act to increase production of testing swabs until April 19th, weeks after shortages were first reported. The Trump administration still has no plan in sight to increase testing. (April 19, 2020)
- In A White House Press Conference, Trump Downplayed Shortages Of Chemicals Used In Testing. The Wall Street Journal reported: “In Sunday’s briefing, Mr. Trump said the administration was preparing to use the Defense Production Act, which can compel manufacturers to make needed products in an emergency, to direct one U.S. facility to produce 20 million additional swabs per month but played down concerns about shortages. Of the chemicals used in testing, he said: ‘We’re in great shape. It’s so easy to get.’“ (April 19, 2020)
- Trump’s Own Assistant Secretary Of Health And Human Services Adm. Brett Giroir Said Testing Through April Would Only Meet About Half The Capacity Needed. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Adm. Brett Giroir said testing through April would only meet about half the capacity needed. (April 20, 2020)
- Many States Struggled To Conduct Urgent Testing Of Those With Symptoms. By April 25th, many states were still struggling to conduct tests on patients with symptoms or those in high-risk groups, let alone test the general population or those who had been in contact with someone who tested positive. (April 25, 2020)