Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday on Meet the Press that while the U.S. is conducting about 150,000 coronavirus tests per day that the number would be higher if governors activated more labs in their states.
States, meanwhile, have said federal delays are at fault. With more swabs and FDA approval for companies making different formulations of necessary reagents, capacity would increase by two or three-fold.
Doubling or tripling testing from current levels is what it would take to begin safely loosening restrictions, experts have said.
Ohio, among other states, is beginning to lay out plans to reopen the economy in gradual, phased stages. Gov. DeWine yesterday appealed directly to anyone from the FDA watching his interview on Meet the Press for help.
“I could probably double, maybe even triple testing in Ohio virtually overnight if the FDA would prioritize companies that are putting a slightly different formula together on the extraction reagent kit. We have a worldwide shortage of the materials that go into this. We really need help. Anybody who’s in the FDA watching this, this would really take our capacity up, literally overnight, and that’s what we need to get right in Ohio.”
DeWine said he spoke to the FDA on Sunday afternoon.
Governors spent the weekend bemoaning the lack of federal assistance for testing.
“The No. 1 problem in America is the lack of testing,” Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan told CNN.
“We’ve been fighting for testing,” Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said on CNN. “It’s not a straight forward test. We don’t even have enough swabs, believe it or not.”
President Trump said at Sunday’s coronavirus task force press conference that governors will receive further information and guidance from the federal government in a call today.
Pence, who also appeared on Meet the Press and other Sunday shows, put the onus on states to boost testing.
“We believe the testing that we have today, across the country, once we activate all of the labs that can do coronavirus testing, is sufficient for any state in America to move into Phase 1,” Pence said on Fox News.
Lab capacity, as Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said on CNN, is not the problem from the perspective of the states.
“We have the capacity to double or triple the number of tests that we are doing but we need some of these supplies. The reagents and the swabs are absolutely essential,” Whitmer said. “You can’t process all of these tests if you can’t take the sample and protect it and move forward though testing. And so while our capabilities are there, these important supplies are not. If the federal government would use the Defense Production Act and say, ‘We’re going to make every swab people need and we’re going to expedite creation of the reagents,’ we would be able to know how prevalent COVID-19 is. It would take down the risk associated with taking actions to reengage parts of our economy because we would have a lot more data about how prevalent COVID-19 still is in our states.”
Trump announced Sunday evening he would use the Defense Production Act to address the shortage of swabs.
“We’ve had a little difficulty with one so we’re calling in, as in the past you know, we’re calling in the Defense Production Act and we’ll be getting swabs very easily,” Trump said. “Swabs are easy. Ventilators are hard.”
This article appears in Apr 15-21, 2020.
I am overwhelmed at the number of vaccine opponents who are so adamant to refuse a vaccine that doesn’t even exist yet.
There has never been a MANDATORY vaccine (Highly encouraged, but not mandatory)
in the United States. If you don’t want it , then don’t get the damn thing. Personally, I think anyone refusing a vaccine, if they manage one, should be listed at every medical treatment location in their state and be refused treatment if they develop symptoms of the” non-existent” virus. Just go home and keep telling yourself it’s not real, or dangerous, just a means to track everyone in the U.S.
Morons
“No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”
-HL Mencken, who died long before anti-vaxx tea party Libertarians crawled back out from under their rocks (i.e. trailers)
Another day, another round of horseshit…multiple posts about tracking and vaxxing and surveillance and dictatorship from the Lone Wingnut. The time stamp doesn’t lie, asshole.
You need to put down the mouse and get out of the house. You need to go to a grocery store and get sick and die already. Enough is enough.
When enough people tell you you’re drunk, it’s time to go lie down.
People have been telling you for weeks how fucked-up you are.
Go lie down. Or at least STFU and do something else with your time.
To Well are ya….Oooooh, the shadowy THEY people already have one. THEY are waiting for it to not be suspicious. Dumbass. If a vaccine already existed THEY would have released it about two weeks ago when fear of Covid-19 was at its peak you nitwit. I have not once advocated for anyone other than myself,never said you should or should not get one. I personally think YOU definitely should not, but i stand by how I feel about someone refusing it not being treated since they knowingly exposed themselves. Same as I feel about heroin users, don’t give em Narcan. Problem solves itself. I also don’t get my Medical Advice from Hannity or Limbaugh……………MORON
Go to the salon anytime you want to Betsy, that’s your big bitch through all this,,your hair,,,idiot
Livinginalockdown, ,,who’s “they” you speak of,,,,your the only one here spewing your bullshit,,,I’m afraid of Bill Gates,,I’m scared of 5g, even though I’m on my cell phone all day,,I hate bike lanes,,no vaccine for him unless he can take it orally, like all his “meds” Instagram is looking for you,,,,,,,