On Monday, the Trump administration released a new blueprint for how they plan to address the woefully inadequate coronavirus testing capabilities in the United States. As Americans have come to expect from this administration, Trump’s proposed plan falls far short of necessary testing to open the economy and get the country back on track. Trump’s testing plan is vague, offers little new solutions to expand testing and continues to shift the responsibility to the states. In the absence of a large scale testing operation, the United States will not be able to reopen the economy, protect our citizens or get back to normal daily life.
Trump’s Touted His New Testing Plan As A Solution To Reopen The Economy…
Trump Claimed That His New Testing Proposal Provided Enough Testing For States To Reopen. “He said the plan includes provisions to expand state testing capacity and establish widespread monitoring systems, as well as contact tracing. ‘We are continuing to rapidly expand our capacity and confident that we have enough testing to begin reopening and the reopening process,’ Trump said from the White House Rose Garden. ‘We’re deploying the full power and strength of the federal government to help states, cities, to help local governments get this horrible plague over with and over with fast.’” [NBC News, 4/28/20]
…But Experts Are Warning That Trump’s New Testing Plan Does Not Go Far Enough And Will Do Little To Stop The Spread Of The Coronavirus
Dr. Cyrus Shahpar, Director Of The Prevent Epidemics Team At Resolve To Save Lives, Argued That Trump’s New Testing Proposal Falls Short. “Dr. Cyrus Shahpar, director of the Prevent Epidemics Team at Resolve to Save Lives, says the White House goal falls far short of meeting standards for adequate testing. ‘Two percent of the U.S. population is about 220 thousand tests a day, but we know to test just the highest priority groups, we need a half a million tests a day, so this falls short,’ Shahpar told ABC news. He included public safety workers, asymptomatic health care workers, and other essential workers in his definition of high priority groups.” [ABC News, 4/28/20]
Jeremy Konyndyk, A Disaster Preparedness Expert Who Worked Obama Administration’s Response To Ebola, Called For Testing 2 Million To 3 Million People Every Day, Far More Than 200,000 Per Day Being Conducted Now. “‘Testing is not going to be a problem at all,’ Trump said later in the Rose Garden. However, many of the administration’s past pledges and goals on testing have not been met. Jeremy Konyndyk, a disaster preparedness expert who helped lead the Obama administration response to Ebola, said the administration’s testing plans are well short of what is needed. Researchers at Harvard have estimated the country needs to be testing a minimum of 500,000 people per day, and possibly many more. Konyndyk said the aim should be 2 million to 3 million per day. Trump said the current total, up sharply in recent days, is over 200,000 per day. Konyndyk said: ‘Over the past month, we’ve doubled or if you want to be really generous tripled the testing capacity in this country. We need to take where we are now and expand it tenfold.’” [Associated Press, 4/27/20]
Jen Kates, Senior Vice President And Director Of Global Health And H.I.V. Policy For The Kaiser Family Foundation, Argued That Testing 2% Of The Population Was Not Enough And That Trump Should Have Provided States With More Guidance. “The Trump administration has come under intense criticism for not doing more, and for not providing specific guidance to the states about how much testing is necessary in its initial plan for reopening the economy, ‘Guidelines for Reopening America Again,’ released this month. Outside experts have recommended that anywhere from 0.9 percent to 50 percent of the American public must be tested for the coronavirus every week. ‘I think it’s really important that the White House has put out much more specific guidance for states around testing,’ said Jen Kates, a senior vice president and director of global health and H.I.V. policy for the Kaiser Family Foundation, who has analyzed states’ capacity for testing. But the plan to test 2 percent, she said, ‘may not be enough.” [The New York Times, 4/27/20]
Nobel Prize-Winning Economist Paul Romer Called For Testing 50% Of The Population Each Week While Trump’s Proposal Only Calls For Testing 2%. “Paul Romer, a Nobel Prize-winning economist from New York University who has recommended that 50 percent of the population be tested each week, said testing 2 percent ‘is not enough to test everyone in health care even once, let alone to keep retesting them every day, which is what it would take to keep those who do get infected from going on shift and infecting their colleagues.’” [The New York Times, 4/27/20]
Doug Fridsma, The Former Chief Scientist At The Office Of National Coordinator For Health IT, Called For The Federal Government To Conduct A More Aggressive Coronavirus Monitoring Program Than What The Trump Administration Has Proposed. “The surveillance plan outlined in the blueprint relies in large part on three illness tracking systems that can tip off policymakers about an emerging coronavirus hot spot: the flu-tracking surveillance network, the CDC’s national system that tracks emergency department patients’ symptoms and electronic reporting from labs and doctors. Those systems aren’t foolproof, however. They rely on proactive reporting from doctors, emergency rooms, large events and schools, said Doug Fridsma, the former chief scientist at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. That means the data tends to lag an actual outbreak, and may not be a strong ‘early warning signal when people are not going to the ER, large events, schools or seeing their health care providers,’ he said. Fridsma wants to see officials monitor leading indicators, like apps feeding self-reported symptoms or social media, ‘rather than waiting until people engage with the health care system. By then, it’s too late.’” [Politico, 4/27/20]
The American Medical Association Wrote A Letter To The Department Of Health And Human Services Recommending Stronger Federal Leadership On Testing. “While we appreciate your work and that of the taskforce to help procure testing components in short supply and ensure hard-hit areas are resourced in the best possible manner, the AMA recommends stronger federal leadership on this critical issue. Laboratories around the country, particularly those in hospital and academic settings, are still struggling to provide ready access to testing services for their patients, in large part due to inconsistent and constrained availability of critical testing components… Further, the AMA believes there is additional opportunity to provide greater clarity and transparency around existing testing capacity and where that capacity is located to help states best manage local and regional resources, as well as provide strong federal guidance on how best to do so.” [American Medical Association Letter To The Department Of Health And Human Services,, 4/27/20]
The Trump Administration’s New Testing Plan Called For Testing 2% Of The Population Monthly, Roughly 200,000 Tests Per Day…
The Trump Administration’s New Testing Plan Called For Each State To Test 2% Of The Population On A Monthly Basis, Which Comes To Roughly 200,000 Tests Per Day. “While the president didn’t not offer specific metrics for his claim that the U.S. will ‘double’ testing, the administration’s top official on testing Assistant Secretary for Health Adm. Brett Giroir says the administration’s goal is to make sure each state has capacity to test at least 2 percent of its population on a monthly basis.. ‘The 2% really is sort of a minimum floor,’ Grior said in an interview on ‘Good Morning America.’ ‘There are many states that want to do 4%, 6%, 8% every month. We have the supply chains figured out. We know what we can supply the states so we are much more sophisticated. The overall strategy is a strategy. It’s not a state-by-state plan.’” [ABC News, 4/28/20]
…While A Recent Harvard Study Concluded That The United States Needed To Conduct 5 Million Tests Per Day By Early June To Return Back To Normalcy
A Recent Report Conducted By Harvard University Estimated That The United Needed To Conduct 5 Million Tests Per Day By Early June To Reopen The Economy. “Some experts warn that the administration’s estimates of how much testing remain far short of what is needed. A recent report from Harvard University, for instance, estimated that the U.S. needs to be conducting 5 million tests per day by early June in order to facilitate a safe return to normal functions.” [ABC News, 4/28/20]
Senator Patty Murray Condemned Trump’s New Testing Proposal
Senator Patty Murray On Trump’s New Testing Plan: “This Document Does Nothing New And Will Accomplish Nothing.” “This document does nothing new and will accomplish nothing new. It doesn’t set specific, numeric goals, offer a timeframe, identify ways to fix our broken supply chain, or offer any details whatsoever on expanding lab capacity or activating needed manufacturing capacity. Perhaps most pathetically, it attempts to shirk obviously federal responsibilities by assigning them solely to states instead. What we need is a clear, aggressive national strategic plan to dramatically ramp up testing and make sure tests are fast, free, and everywhere—and then we need the Administration to implement it like people expect the President of the United States of America and his team to do. That’s what Congress has required and that is what I look forward to reviewing.” [Press Release, Senator Patty Murray, 4/27/20]
Trump’s New Testing Plan Is Offering Little To The States…
Vox: “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.” “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]
…And It May Not Significantly Increase Testing
Vox: “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.” [Vox, 4/28/20]