Federal funding for testing facilities is being pulled on Friday, even as cases continue to rise

[LiberalArkie]

On March 13, Donald Trump came to his daily coronavirus rally appearance with company. With a great deal of inappropriate closeness and hand-shaking, Trump brought forth executives from Walgreens, Target, Walmart, CVS, with a promise that, across the nation, the parking lots of these companies would soon be filled with drive-through testing locations to identify and isolate those with COVID-19. Of course, this was the same press conference where Trump announced a website under development by “1700 engineers at Google” which would would quiz Americans on their symptoms and pair them with the appropriate test facility.

The website didn’t exist. And by April 1 the grand total of drive-through testing facilities on the parking lots of these companies came in at five. And those five offered testing only to first responders and healthcare workers, not the general public. But it doesn’t matter now, because Trump is pulling the funding for those sites—and for every other drive-through testing site.

Testing and isolation remains the only way to combat the spread of novel coronavirus until a vaccine becomes available. Everything done through social distancing and other suppression measures is expressly meant to provide time for testing, case tracing, and isolation to break the transmission chain for COVID-19. Otherwise, any relaxation of measures that keep people apart will only generate a fresh spike of cases, presenting the nation with the same dilemma it faced when the epidemic began.

But Trump seems determined to destroy both aspects of the only workable solution. Not only has he been pushing for an end to social distancing guidelines and a re-opening of many businesses, Trump is also pulling federal funding for testing sites.


More

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/4/9/1935815/-Federal-funding-for-testing-facilities-is-being-pulled-on-Friday-even-as-cases-continue-to-rise#read-more

[Chainfire]

1. The old boy

is working hard, in many ways, to bring us wave II.

[LiberalArkie]

2. But I guess that means it will be over on Easter

[Hoyt]

3. Fortunately, other testing sites are opening up.

"CVS and Walgreens are opening more drive-thru coronavirus testing sites. Here’s what to expect if you go"

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/09/what-to-expect-if-go-to-a-drive-thru-coronavirus-test-site.html

Doctors' offices and hospitals are getting tests, etc.

[procon]

4. Dare I ask if the Idiot in Chief has a reason for this?

The corona virus is not finished with us yet, not by half. With so many red states slow to respond, new cases are still arriving. Now is not the time to cut testing.