Government turning to private industry for coronavirus testing

Trump administration rolls out new coronavirus push, names HHS testing czar

Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, acknowledged the ongoing problems with testing in a television interview on Friday morning. But he said that, with the growing involvement of the private sector in the testing process, “it’s going to be markedly improved.”

 

“The companies that generally do these kinds of tests for a living are now going to be major-league involved in getting this available to the public,” Fauci said. “Whereas before, it was mostly on the burden of the CDC as a public health organization."

HHS Secretary Alex Azar has specifically tasked Giroir with improving coordination between the CDC and the FDA, “as well as state and local public health authorities and private or public clinical laboratories,” according to an HHS official.

“A key priority is to ensure that patients, doctors, and hospitals can access tests seamlessly and with maximum ease, and Dr. Giroir will lead efforts to execute on that goal,” Azar said in a statement.

Let's be clear here folks... people with the symptoms should already be quarantined, either by choice or by direction of others. Even here in Minnesota (where we have only seen a handful of cases) nobody with anything more than the sniffles is coming to work, going to school, or heading out into the public.

Today I am traveling to Seattle where all events over 250 people and any event that cannot dictate a 6' distance between people are officially cancelled. Schools are closed, many restaurants are closed (or have gone out of business already). My wife says that there isn't even rush hour traffic right now (in a city known for bad rush hour traffic).

Moreover, anyone who is being admitted to the Hospital with symptoms are being tested. Which means that confirmed deaths are probably way more accurate than confirmed cases. I suspect that as we ramp up the testing, that we will find way more people officially confirmed with coronavirus (even if we do not see much rise in deaths).

But at the end of the day, the United States has an advantage of being able to coop their efforts with the robust private industry. Many businesses and philanthropists are providing healthy donations. The reality is that there are many problems that cannot be solved by "Government" and our system (which allows for a large private sector) is simply better equipped to do these things.

Once we get around the issues between the CDC and the FDA and delays in both the approval and testing of these testing kits, things will go smoother. Get it outside of the slow movement and red tape of our heavy Federal Government and let the demand dictate the supply we will be on our way.