National Demand for COVID-19 Testing Requires Congress to Act, Approve Funding & Reimbursement for Testing Capacity
There is broad recognition among public health experts, the White House and congressional leaders that COVID-19 testing is the most critical element of our national response to this public health emergency. Our ability to assess every intervention – health or economic – depends on the availability of testing; yet, dedicated funding for testing is notably missing from current Congressional funding packages. Testing should be accessible for all who need it. But to deliver on that promise, Congress needs to take immediate action to ensure that there is sufficient funding to support the testing itself. Read ACLA’s latest statements and updates on clinical labs’ COVID-19 response at https://www.acla.com/covid-19/.
- “For God’s sake, just get us more tests.” – Dr. Rob Davidson, executive director of the Committee to Protect Medicare, March 20
- “Without readily available coronavirus tests, hospitals are ‘simply burning up [personal protective equipment] at unsustainable rates. If we had the tests and got the results quickly, we can free up PPE and hospital beds for those that really need the care.’” – Rick Pollack, American Hospital Association President, March 21
- “As primary-care physicians, we’re the canaries in the coal mine. But we’re not canaries who want to die because we don’t have the appropriate protections or appropriate testing.” – Gary LeRoy, President of the American Academy of Family Physicians, March 11
- “The three most important parts…are testing, testing, testing…We can only defeat this outbreak if we have an accurate determination of its scale and scope, so that we can pursue the precise, science-based response that is necessary.” – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, March 13
- “…The most important thing that we need is data. We should be testing everyone who can — who comes in so that we can really understand if there clusters, are there geographic areas that we need to make priorities, are there lessons to be learned, how many people are being hospitalized of those that test positive.” – Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, March 22
- “Our highest priority is keeping Marylanders safe, and having the capability to test quickly for potential COVID-19 cases is an important part of that.” – Gov. Larry Hogan, March 3
- “…Let’s increase as quickly as possible our testing capacity so we can identify the positive people.” – Gov. Andrew Cuomo, March 7
- “The pace of testing has to increase in Louisiana and this order will allow more laboratories in Louisiana to process COVID-19 tests, which is critical as our state fights the spread of this illness.” – Gov. John Bel Edwards, March 19
- “Hopefully we will get these tests going very soon, because ideally, everyone should have access to a test if they need it and want it. But unfortunately, that’s not what we have now… But the most important thing is we need to know who currently has the disease because we need to know who is actively infectious and therefore able to transmit the disease to others.” – Dr. Leana Wen, emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University, March 18
- “Until we get test results, we’re working in the blind.” – Dr. Michael Baden, forensic pathologist and FOX News contributor, March 13
- “Testing is crucially important to find when the virus is spreading, control outbreaks in health facilities, care for people with pneumonia, and understand the virus better.” – Dr. Thomas Frieden, former head of the CDC, March 15
- “We must make sure we are testing more people so we can start to respond to this epidemic with our eyes open.” – Caroline Buckee, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, March 11
- “The testing capacity remains extraordinarily limited compared to where we should be. And in many ways we are absolutely flying blind at the moment.” – Dr. Michael Mina, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, March 18
- “Get the capacity, and test, test, test…If you don’t know you’ve got a fire, you can’t put it out.” – Dr. Margaret Harris, member of the WHO Coronavirus response team, March 18
- “Access to testing is the No. 1 issue right now. People who need and want to be tested are being turned away. In the nation with the best and most developed health care system in the world, that is absolutely ridiculous.” – Sen. Rick Scott, March 13
- “Frankly, having testing would have given us a much better view as to how many people have the virus and what kind of social distancing actions we should be taking to prevent the spread of the virus.” – Sen. Mitt Romney, March 12
- “Members of our delegation have come forward to say this is not acceptable for Minnesota not to have the capacity to process our tests in large numbers right now. Let’s get the testing capacity to the point where we know what the numbers are, when we know community spread is occurring, so our state can have the ability to act as quickly as possible.” – Rep. Angie Craig, March 16
- “…As legislators, we need to ensure that this bipartisan bill provides the support for testing. That is the number one priority to make sure that we are able to do this in a timely way.” – Rep. Elise Stefanik, March 12
- “We’re the boots on the ground. We know what’s available. Some of the commercial labs do not have the materials they need…We’re getting reagents wherever we can get them. The bottom line is our lab has been using several different testing methodologies in an attempt to maximize the testing we can do, and if the supplies for that are running out, we move to the next methodology…” – Kris Ehressman, infectious disease division director for the Minnesota Health Department, March 20
- “Key to using screening as a tool to blunt epidemic spread is the delivery systems, and supplies, to allow widespread testing.” – Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former FDA commissioner, March 16
