The U.S. Still Needs a Coronavirus Testing Strategy

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Congress included $25 billion for coronavirus testing in its recent aid package, and told the Trump administration to quickly expand testing capacity, develop better and faster tests, and create a “strategic testing plan” for the country. It’s frustrating that lawmakers needed to spell this out. The White House should have long recognized its responsibility to support and coordinate state, local and private efforts.

Months into the pandemic, testing capacity in the U.S. has improved but is too small to show how quickly the virus is spreading. This makes reopening the economy hazardous. Even when the rate of transmission has fallen enough to allow some easing of restrictions, it won’t be safe to let people congregate until new infections can be quickly identified and isolated. There’s a risk, otherwise, of new viral flare-ups and even a second and worse wave of the disease this fall. Once Covid-19 is eventually brought to heel, a national testing strategy will be needed to confront the next emerging virus.

Granted, even though President Donald Trump told the states that testing was their job, the White House has helped here and there — boosting the production of swabs, rustling up test kits and supplies, and increasing payments to laboratories to enable them to expand. But the administration failed in its most crucial task: coordinating state and private efforts. Public and private laboratories have competed against one another for essential supplies, and governors have been forced to scramble as best they can. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan called on his Korean-speaking wife to negotiate a deal to buy 5,000 test kits from suppliers in South Korea.

Some states have managed better than others, in the absence of clear national standards on how much testing is needed, and without consistent help in finding labs with capacity. An effective national strategy would help states, cities, hospitals and private labs work together.

The good news is that efforts to expand testing capacity are starting to pay off, if more slowly than anyone would like. In the past week, some 1.75 million people were tested in the U.S. But public health officials want to see that number double. In a report last month, former Food and Drug Administration leaders Mark McClellan (from the George W. Bush administration) and Scott Gottlieb (from the Trump administration) said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention needs to set standards for all 50 states to test widely and conduct “contact tracing” to find and isolate everyone exposed to the virus. So far no states have sufficient capacity, though systems are being set up in Massachusetts, New York and California. (Bloomberg Philanthropies is helping develop the New York program.)

The Health and Human Services Department can use its $11 billion in state testing funds to ensure that the tests are high-quality and meet minimum standards for thoroughness, and that complete and consistent data are reported electronically. Age, race, location and health status are necessary to show how Covid-19 works. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services can also bring financial incentives to bear, setting its reimbursement rates to reward labs for using the most effective tests.

Millions of them need to be done every week — until a vaccine brings immunity. Yes, states should be expected to manage their own operations well. But in a national emergency, they could do that much better with proper guidance and support from Washington.

Editorials are written by the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board.

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