Joe Biden’s mission to fix US coronavirus testing problem moves into top gear

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by David Lim on politico.com on November 20, 2020.

The Biden team is focusing on ways to detect people who are infected but not showing symptoms, to keep those potential superspreaders from passing the virus to others.

The strategies under discussion, according to four experts advising Biden, include increasing the availability of cheap, rapid tests; using the Defence Production Act to ramp up the supply of pipettes, chemicals and other key testing materials; and strengthening federal coordination of testing.

The efforts have got a boost from recent technological advances, such as the FDA’s decision this week to green light the first fully at-home test. The Biden team is also talking to groups like The Rockefeller Foundation, said an executive at the non-profit group, which is working with cities, states and tribes to improve access to testing, determine how it can be used to keep schools open, and set up effective contact-tracing programmes.

If successful, Biden’s approach would turn the testing system into a tool capable of reducing infections, rather than merely documenting the pandemic’s toll. The Trump administration has largely shifted responsibility for testing onto states and commercial labs – supporting the development of new types of tests but shying away from a coordinated federal strategy to screen the public.

Public health experts say a new approach to testing is sorely needed, a year after the virus first emerged. The US recorded more than 1.1 million new cases in the last week, increasing by 26 per cent over the previous week – while the number of tests run grew by just 10 per cent, to 11 million.