Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
FDA Grants Emergency Clearance To Quick Virus Test, But Health Experts And Lawmakers Still Lament Government's Testing Fumbles
The Wall Street Journal: FDA Grants New Coronavirus Test Emergency Approval
A new, high-speed coronavirus test has been granted emergency clearance by the Food and Drug Administration, the latest effort to expand capacity to diagnose the fast-spreading pathogen. The test was developed by diagnostics giant Roche Holding AG RHHBY -8.96% and is designed to run on the company’s automated machines, which are already installed in more than 100 laboratories across the U.S. It is only the third coronavirus diagnostic to receive emergency-use authorization from the FDA, following a test developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and one from the New York State Department of Health. (Roland and Loftus, 3/13)
CBS News: Johns Hopkins Develops Its Own Coronavirus Test
Doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore have created their own coronavirus test, which they hope will help address the need for more testing for COVID-19. Doctors at Hopkins said the country needs more widely available tests that return results more quickly. That's why they created a test on their own, reports CBS Baltimore. Hopkins began using the test on Wednesday and by Thursday night, they were to have tested 50 samples. (3/13)
ProPublica: The FDA Is Forcing The CDC To Waste Time Double Testing Some Coronavirus Cases
A federal directive that’s supposed to speed up the response to a pandemic is actually slowing down the government’s rollout of coronavirus tests. The directive, issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, requires that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a sister agency, retest every positive coronavirus test run by a public health lab to confirm its accuracy. The result, experts say, is wasting limited resources at a time when thousands of Americans are waiting in line to get tested for COVID-19. (DePhillis and Chen, 3/12)
The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Virus Testing System Is Failing, Fauci Tells Congress
The federal government’s top infectious-disease doctor said the nation’s system for disease testing has failed during the coronavirus outbreak because people typically need a doctor’s permission to be tested. “The system is not really geared to what we need right now,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testified Thursday at a congressional hearing. “That is a failing. It is a failing. Let’s admit it.” (Burton, Armour and Wise, 3/12)
CBS News: "It Certainly Is Not Too Late": Fauci Says Wider Coronavirus Testing System Will Be Up And Running Soon
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who is on the coronavirus task force, said at a House meeting on Thursday that the current testing system "is not really geared to what we need right now." Hours after calling the testing system a "failing," Fauci spoke to "CBS Evening News" anchor Norah O'Donnell in an exclusive interview. (3/12)
CNN: Lawmakers Fume Amid Lack Of Coronavirus Testing
Members were exasperated with what they said was a lack of clarity in the officials' answers, as lawmakers struggle to understand how the US has been so far outpaced by other countries grappling with the pandemic. As he left Thursday's briefing, GOP Rep. Mark Walker of North Carolina said there is "a growing frustration among members as a whole to get more definitive answers" from the administration about testing capabilities.He said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "struggled to give a really strong answer" on why the United States hasn't been able to duplicate testing that is being used in places such as South Korea. (Byrd, Fox, Raju and Barrett, 3/12)
The New York Times: Travelers From Coronavirus Hot Spots Say They Faced No Screening
As thousands of Americans flee from Europe and other centers of the coronavirus outbreak, many travelers are reporting no health screenings upon departure and few impediments at U.S. airports beyond a welcome home greeting. Since January, officers from Customs and Border Protection have been on heightened alert for travelers who could potentially spread the virus. The Department of Homeland Security has told employees to look for visible physical symptoms and search through their travel documents and a federal database that tracks where they came from. Those customs officers will soon have to spot symptoms among a flood of more Americans funneled to designated airports from multiple countries in Europe, an administration official said, after President Trump announced new travel restrictions on the region this week. (Kanno-Youngs, 3/13)
