As we watch as more Americans get sick and more Americans die from COVID-19, one fact that has remained a constant since this past January…we don’t have enough test kits and aren’t doing enough testing. Nations that have done extensive testing like South Korea and Germany have much better outcomes than our experience in the United States.
So what has President Donald Trump decided to do? Shut down the federal testing programs...like tomorrow!
Days before the expected peak of the coronavirus crisis, the Trump administration says it is going ahead with plans to end federal support for COVID-19 testing on Friday, transitioning the responsibility for managing and funding the sites to states.
Across the country, 40 Community-Based Testing Sites that FEMA and the Department of Health and Human Services established will either be shuttered or taken over by state governments. The FEMA/HHS sites were created to rapidly scale up testing abilities nationwide at the beginning of the crisis.
A FEMA spokesperson said that the federal testing sites were always meant to be temporary…
Yes…we all assumed they’d be temporary…but still extant until we actually had the pandemic under control. If I were religious, maybe I’d look for a symbol in the action…being Good Friday and the start of Sabbath during Passover…but it’s just flat out ignorant mean-spirited ‘because they can’ actions on the part of the Trump regime.
…now that the FDA has given approval for individuals to self-administer COVID-19 nasal swab tests at testing sites, the demand for PPE and trained health care providers will significantly be reduced…
Well that might flocking actually be true but they should wait until those flocking tests are actually available in quantities sufficient so that ‘everyone that wants a test can get a test’. When I can walk into Walgreens and get one might even be too soon.
Given the fact that many carriers are asymptomatic, to me this is most negligent thing that the administration has done since the entire pandemic has been raging…this once again is a criminal act…and I am now thinking that the President of the United States is a domestic terrorist. I can’t imagine that any of the medicos on his task force actually signed off on this.
Meantime:
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden reacted in astonishment to the story late Thursday, writing on Twitter, “I can’t believe I have to say this, but we should be expanding the number of testing sites and surging the number of tests — not reducing them. Testing is key to finding a way out of this crisis.”
btw: if and when the aforementioned home tests are actually available they should have Amazon Prime deliver as many as needed to each household in America for free!
And in the spirit of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos telling us it is safe to vote while garbed in full on PPE gear:
Recently, the White House Correspondents Association announced the president is requiring reporters who attend White House briefings to be tested for the virus — and presumably, these tests will be federally-funded. Now, Trump needs to make sure that all Americans, not just the press corps who come into his orbit, continue to have free access to this vital test.
just more of the trump cluster (you know).