Trump guidance puts burden on states to reach Covid-19 testing targets

CVS Health and Walgreens, two of the US’s major pharmacy chains, announced they were expanding free testing, with CVS aiming for as many as 1.5m tests each month, USA Today reported.

More than 190,000 new tests were reported nationwide on Monday, according to the Covid Tracking Project, a gargantuan boost compared with the single digits recorded only two months before. But as the country steamrolls into May, 500,000 diagnostic tests will represent “the bare minimum” per day to capture most infected people and assuage Americans’ concerns, said Jha, a threshold that still hasn’t been reached on any single day so far.

“Identifying who’s infected, who’s not is like public health, disease control 101. Without that, you’ve got nothing,” Jha said. “If you can’t test people for the virus, you cannot figure out who’s infected, you can’t keep them away from susceptible people, you can’t run your economy.”

Not all states will necessarily be equally affected, as an outbreak’s size drives testing needs, Jha said. In an analysis he and his team collaborated on with Stat, projections show that New York will require upwards of 100,000 more tests per day starting in May to catch most infected people in time. This despite the state’s already impressive infrastructure, where more people have been tested than anywhere else in the US.

Texas, on the other hand, has been disparaged for its lack of testing. But Jha’s analysis shows the state is actually performing enough tests for early May, if social distancing measures remain in place. The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, has instead announced that he will allow some businesses to reopen on Friday, a move with unclear consequences.

“This is the key about the virus, is any action you take today, you won’t see the benefits or the costs for several weeks,” Jha said.

Meanwhile, antibody tests – once touted as a potential measurement for who could safely re-enter society after developing immunity to the disease – have taken on a lesser role as the country actually moves toward reopening. Such a minuscule proportion of the US population has been exposed to the virus, and false positives on immunity tests abound, Jha said. But perhaps even more significantly, there is “no evidence” that recovered Covid-19 patients cannot get infected again, even if they have antibodies, the World Health Organization wrote on Friday.

“Most of us believe that having antibodies should be protective for most people, but that’s a lot of caveats,” said Jha. “I don’t feel like we should make policy based on luck.”

Trump is pushing all responsibilities to the states so that he doesn't have to take any responsibility. If things go well, he'll try to take credit. If not, he has someone to blame. He is absolutely the most useless, despicable person on the planet.

Are all of his enablers mentally ill, too? Or just fucking evil?

And states will be fucked for decades to come. So long, basic services!

Imagine if FDR said “States on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts should be on the lookout for enemy bombers and submarines. We’re wishing you the best of luck.”

"Hawaii was asking for it." -- DJT fireside chat, Dec. 8 1941