Dems back Biden on virus tests

WASHINGTON — Joe Biden has proposed harnessing the broad powers of the federal government to step up coronavirus testing, with a public-private board overseeing test manufacturing and distribution, federal safety regulators enforcing testing at work and at least 100,000 contact tracers tracking down people exposed to the virus.

The presumptive Democratic nominee’s plan, laid out in a little-noticed Medium post, stands in stark contrast to President Donald Trump’s leave-it-to-thestates strategy, detailed in an 81-page document released over the weekend.

And it presents voters in November with a classic philosophical choice over the role they want Washington to play during the worst public health crisis in a century.

Polls show that most people want better access to testing and believe it is the job of the federal government. Like Biden, Democrats running for Congress have seized on testing as a prime example of what they view as Trump’s incompetent response to the crisis.

In Michigan, Sen. Gary Peters, an incumbent Democrat, tells viewers in a TV ad that “workplaces need to be safe” and “that means more testing.” In Colorado, an ad for Sen. Cory Gardner, an incumbent Republican, begins with footage of a news anchor saying, “Coronavirus tests are coming to Colorado from South Korea because of Sen. Cory Gardner.”

In Maine, Sara Gideon, a Democrat running to unseat Sen. Susan Collins, is airing a TV ad in which she says that “the federal government needs to expand testing, which is critical to keeping us safe.”