Meanwhile,
scientists and medical experts say we need more testing
Less than one day after President
Donald Trump declared publicly that "by doing all this testing we make
ourselves look bad," new research from the Harvard Global Health Institute
out Thursday morning reveals that nationwide testing is dangerously behind
where it needs to be in order to curb the intensifying Covid-19 pandemic
gripping the United States.
The Harvard researchers found that
as projections of deaths and infections are reassessed upward, testing in the
U.S. remains perilously low—with over three times as many daily tests as are in
place today needed to safely reopen the country.
"Just in the last few weeks,
all of the models have converged on many more people getting infected and many
more people [dying]," Global Health Institute director Ashish
Jha told NPR.
The projections for increased
infections and fatalities are paired in the analysis with a national testing
regime that is woefully under capacity and a White House desperate to get the
country back to work for political gain.
According to Jha, the institute's
research projects the U.S. would have to test over 900,000 people a day in
order to safely begin reopening the economy and loosen social restrictions. The
country as a whole is currently testing 247, 657 people a day.
"Testing is outbreak control
101, because what testing lets you do is figure out who's infected and who's
not," said Jha. "And that lets you separate out the infected people
from the non infected people and bring the disease under control."
A Center for American Progress (CAP) analysis Monday found that "no state currently meets both the incidence and testing thresholds estimated for their state; only eight states—Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Montana, Oregon, Vermont, and West Virginia — meet the incidence threshold; and only Rhode Island meets the testing threshold."
CAP Health Policy vice president
Topher Spiro said that the lack of testing would have negative ramifications
for the country's attempts at economic reopening.
"These estimates suggest that,
across the board, states' decisions to relax stay-at-home efforts are premature
and risk a substantial second wave and corresponding economic shutdown,"
said Spiro. "Whether or not a state's economy is legally open, the public
will not engage with it unless and until the virus is contained."
On Wednesday, Johns Hopkins
University epidemiologist Caitlin Rivers told the House Committee on
Appropriations that she believed the country was at a "critical moment of
this fight" and that loosening restrictions in the country would be a
catastrophic mistake.
"We risk complacency in
accepting the preventable deaths of 2,000 Americans each day, we risk
complacency in accepting that our healthcare workers do not have what they need
to do their jobs safely, and we risk complacency in recognizing that without
continued vigilance we will again create the conditions that led to us being
the worst-affected country in the world," said Rivers.
Harvard's Jha told NPR that
the country needs to be prepared for a long haul approach to the disease.
"I think what people have to
remember is that the virus isn't gone," said Jha. "The disease isn't
gone. And it's going to be with us for a while."
Despite repeated warnings of testing
capacity and the virus' spread, President Donald Trump has maintained the need
to reopen the country and told the New York Times Wednesday
that he was disinclined to order more tests because of the message that would
send.
"In a way, by doing all this
testing we make ourselves look bad," Trump said.
Harvard Kennedy School Professor
Nicholas Burns said that comment was itself
disqualifying.
"If he is not prioritizing
public health but his electoral prospects, he should be voted out of office on
this statement alone," said Burns.