Biden pushes to reset national coronavirus testing system
He wants national plan to be ‘clear, unified’
President Joe Biden seeks to reset the nation’s inconsistent coronavirus testing efforts with a $50 billion plan and more federal oversight.
Biden’s plan calls for a newly created Pandemic Testing Board to coordinate a “clear, unified approach” to testing for the virus – a marked difference from the Trump administration’s policy of states establishing their own plans with federal support.
Laboratories have ramped up production to more than 2 million tests each day, but stubborn problems persist. Some labs struggle to complete timely tests, particularly when demand surges, because of shortages of critical supplies.
Public health labs largely are not equipped to detect new coronavirus variants such as ones first identified in the United Kingdom and South Africa. And there’s debate among testing experts on whether wider use of cheaper but less sensitive rapid tests would be the smartest path out of the pandemic.
Biden issued a flurry of executive orders Thursday, from mask mandates on federal property to reopening schools and accelerating vaccine shipments. Fixing the nation’s disparate testing system “will be the most challenging” of all, said Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden said Biden’s testing initiative fits with his broader, science-based plan to curb a pandemic that has killed more than 415,000 people in the United States.
“This is a really challenging pandemic to deal with,” said Frieden, president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies. “Important as executive orders are, they are only the start of a major effort.”
Calling a national testing strategy the “cornerstone to reducing the spread of COVID,” Biden’s plan calls for more rapid antigen tests, supplies, lab capacity and genomic sequencing to keep better track of hot spots and new variants.
There are also tidbits for consumers. One executive order requires federal agencies to clarify insurers’ obligation to cover testing, even for people who have no symptoms. For those without health insurance, testing will be free, the order says.
Just as important as a national testing plan is the president’s call for better data reporting and a willingness to level with the American public, Frieden said.
“President Biden has been very clear: We’re in it together,” he said. “It’s going to get worse before it gets better. These are all hard truths and important facts that need to be shared and lived. And they have been ignored for a year.”
The plan calls for federal agencies to use the wartime Defense Production Act to fix persistent shortages of testing and vaccine supplies, as well as protective equipment such as gowns, gloves and N95 masks.