As coronavirus cases in the United States started to increase, President Donald Trump and his administration made big promises on testing — but they haven’t come near delivering on them.
His promise that there’d be 27 million tests by the end of March? Broken. That there would be thousands of drive through test sites at Big Box stores? Broken. And that “anybody who wants a test can get a test”? Broken.
But new reporting shows that Trump’s mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic hasn’t just been limited to making big promises and not following through. As governors follow Trump’s push to reopen their economies, they’re not testing nearly enough people. That’s in large part because the White House has not done enough to address the persistent testing supply shortages impacting states across the country.
See below for a round up on the new evidence that shows Trump’s lack of leadership has made the U.S. continue to fall behind on testing as some governor’s work to reopen their economies.
New Reporting Shows the U.S. is Still Falling Behind on Testing As States Seek to Re-Open Their Economies
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New York Times: U.S. Testing Capacity “Is Nowhere Near The Level Mr. Trump Suggests It Is.” “As governors decide about opening their economies, they continue to be hampered by a shortage of testing capacity, leaving them without the information that public health experts say is needed to track outbreaks and contain them. And while the United States has made strides over the past month in expanding testing, its capacity is nowhere near the level Mr. Trump suggests it is.” [New York Times, 4/25/20]
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Governors And Public Health Officials Say They Are Still Operating In The Kind Of Wild West Economy That Left Them Competing With Each Other To Procure Materials They Need. “On top of all that, the administration has resisted a full-scale national mobilization, instead intervening to allocate scarce equipment on an ad hoc basis and leaving production bottlenecks and shortages largely to market forces. Governors, public health officials and hospital executives say they are still operating in a kind of Wild West economy that has left them scrambling — and competing with one another — to procure the equipment and other materials they need.” [New York Times, 4/25/20]
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Even As States Are Starting To Reopen, Many Are Still Struggling To Conduct Urgent Testing Of Those With Symptoms Or In High-Risk Groups. “But as states begin to reopen, the nation is far from being able to conduct the kind of widespread surveillance testing that health experts say would be optimal. Many states are still struggling to conduct much more urgent testing of patients with symptoms, or those in high-risk groups. Few have the money or the personnel to also check on the presence of the virus in the general population or to reach out to people who have been in contact with those confirmed to be ill.” [New York Times, 4/25/20]
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New Analysis By Harvard Researchers And STAT Found That More Than Half Of U.S. States Would Have To Significantly Step Up Their Testing To Even Consider Relaxing Stay At Home Orders. “More than half of U.S. states will have to significantly step up their Covid-19 testing to even consider starting to relax stay-at-home orders after May 1, according to a new analysis by Harvard researchers and STAT. The analysis shows that as the U.S. tries to move beyond its monthslong coronavirus testing debacle — faulty tests, shortages of tests, and guidelines that excluded many people who should have been tested to mitigate the outbreak — it is at risk of fumbling the next challenge: testing enough people to determine which cities and states can safely reopen and stay open.” [STAT, 4/27/20]
- Harvard Researchers And STAT Estimate That Georgia Would Have To More Than Double Its Daily Tests To Catch Hot Spots. “To catch hot spots before they turn into wildfires of disease, Georgia must do 9,600 to 10,000 tests per day; it has been averaging around 4,000. Florida will need 16,000; in the last week it has been hitting just above 10,000.” [STAT, 4/27/20]
- Harvard And STAT Researchers Found That Ten States Would Need To Increase Testing By At Least 10,000 A Day To Consider Easing Restrictions. “But the new state-by-state review reveals a far more fragmented picture: 31 states and the District of Columbia were doing too little testing last week to identify most infected people in a timely manner. Ten states would need to increase their daily testing totals by at least 10,000 to do so by May 1. New York, for instance, would have to perform more than 100,000 more tests a day, and New Jersey 68,000 more. Nineteen states — all but two in the South or the western half of the country — are already doing enough testing.” [STAT, 4/27/20]
While Members of Trump’s Own Coronavirus Task Force Have Sounded the Alarm on the Need to Ramp Up Testing Across the Board
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Dr. Anthony Fauci Said Testing In The U.S. Needed To Double Over The Next Several Weeks. “On Saturday, Anthony Fauci said that the U.S. is testing roughly 1.5 million to 2 million people a week, but ‘we probably should get up to twice that as we get into the next several weeks, and I think we will.’” [Axios, 4/27/20]
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Dr. Deborah Birx: “We Have To Realize That We Have To Have A Breakthrough Innovation In Testing.” “Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, said yesterday that ‘we have to realize that we have to have a breakthrough innovation in testing.’ She said we’ll need tests that can detect antigen, or the part of a pathogen that triggers an immune response.” [Axios, 4/27/20]
And Trump Continues to Break His Promises on Testing
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By The Seventh Week Of Coronavirus Spread In The U.S., Trump HHS Secretary Alex Azar Promised 4 Million Tests But Delivered Only 25,200. “Trump and HHS Secretary Alex Azar visited the CDC lab in Atlanta on March 6, praising the agency’s performance and promising 4 million test kits would be available by the end of the following week. That lofty number didn’t match the ability of U.S. labs to process tests, however. Private providers were just then ramping up, while CDC and state health labs processed about 25,200 COVID-19 tests in the following seven days, according to CDC data.” [Associated Press, 3/23/20]
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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.” [White House Press Conference, 3/21/20]
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Trump Falsely Claimed “Anybody That Needs A Test Gets A Test.” “”Anybody right now and yesterday — anybody that needs a test gets a test. We — they’re there. They have the tests. And the tests are beautiful. Anybody that needs a test gets a test. If there’s a doctor that wants to test, if there’s somebody coming off a ship — like the big monster ship that’s out there right now, which, you know — again, that’s a big decision.” [Donald Trump, Briefing At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 3/6/20]
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Trump Claimed That “Millions” Of Tests Were Being Made. “But anybody that needs a test can have a test. They’re all set. They have them out there. In addition to that, they’re making millions of more as we speak. But as of right now and yesterday, anybody that needs a test — that’s the important thing — and the tests are all perfect, like the letter was perfect.” [Donald Trump, Briefing At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 3/6/20]
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HEADLINE: “Trump Promised Scores Of Big-Box Retailers Would Offer Parking Lots For Covid-19 Testing. There Are Only Five Of Them.” [Washington Post, 3/27/20]
- TRUMP: “We’ve been in discussions with pharmacies and retailers to make drive-through tests available in the critical locations identified by public health professionals. The goal is for individuals to be able to drive up and be swabbed without having to leave your car.” [White House Press Conference, 3/13/20]