CDC Director Endorses Importance Of Antibody Testing Before U.S. ‘Reopens’

From early on, experts said testing would be crucial to mitigating coronavirus. In mid-March, Donald Trump said, “anyone that wants a test, can get a test.” We’ve since learned that is far from true. We still hear countless stories of people, even ones with symptoms, who can’t get tested. The tests aren’t widely available, and, in some cases, even when people are tested, labs are too backed up to determine the results quickly.

And now, Donald Trump is pulling back on the notion of widespread testing. Last week NPR reported, “the federal government will end funding for coronavirus testing sites this Friday.” After an uproar, the outlet says that “The Department of Health and Human Services is stepping back from a plan to end support… Instead, the agency says local authorities can choose whether they want to transition to running the programs themselves or continue with federal oversight and help.”

Today we are learning that another critical test will need to be more frequently used if we want to  transition back to opening businesses and schools safely. On the “Today” show, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield (watch above) specifically pointed out how vital antibody testing will be saying:

“That’s the one test for the virus, to see if you’re actively infected. We’re going to need to have that aggressively employed as we begin to reopen. Again, central to the success of that, so we stay hope, is to be able to do early case identification, isolation and contact tracing, and to basically prevent the opportunity for community transmission to come back into the system. Antibody testing is going to give us a good idea from a surveillance point of view of how significant the outbreak was. and in certain circumstances, I think it will help bring consumer confidence in certain work forces, particularly infrastructure work forces, where individuals will have greater confidence knowing they are already immune. Particularly in the health care setting to see which health care workers basically have been exposed and now may be able to care for patients without concern of infection.”

But this is another testing area where the Trump administration doesn’t have a clear plan (or perhaps any plan). The Los Angeles Times writes:

The White House has not outlined a broader plan for testing and how the results might be used.

With almost no FDA oversight of the tests, “It really has created a mess that’s going to take a while to clean up,” said Eric Blank of the Assn. for Public Health Laboratories. “In the meantime, you’ve got a lot of companies marketing a lot of stuff and nobody has any idea of how good it is.”

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has made it clear, “We cannot restart life as we knew it without testing. Testing is the essential component.”

There are a handful of hospitals starting to use antibody tests, but no coordinated effort.