Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
States To Get 100M Rapid COVID Tests, Trump Announces
The Hill: Trump Announces Plan To Distribute 100M Rapid COVID-19 Tests To States
President Trump on Monday announced a plan to distribute 100 million rapid COVID-19 tests to states by the end of the year, strongly urging governors to use them to help schools reopen. The Abbott tests, which are cheaper and faster than lab tests, return results in about 15 minutes and are already widely used in nursing homes under a program set up by the Trump administration. (Hellmann, 9/28)
NBC News: Trump Pushes Rapid Coronavirus Testing For Schools Ahead Of First Debate
President Donald Trump took to the Rose Garden on the eve of his first debate with Joe Biden to reiterate an announcement from last month of a federal plan to distribute millions of rapid coronavirus diagnostic tests to states. A shipment of 6.5 million tests is expected to go out this week to states as part of a $760 million contract the administration announced last month on the final day of the Republican National Convention. (Pettypiece, 9/28)
AP: Feds To Ship Millions Of Tests In Bid To Reopen K-12 Schools
The tests will go out to states based on their population and can be used as governors see fit, but the Trump administration is encouraging states to place a priority on schools. White House officials said at a Rose Garden event that 6.5 million tests will go out this week and that a total of 100 million tests will be distributed to governors over the next several weeks. Officials said the administration is emphasizing testing in schools because it’s important to the physical, social and emotional development of students to be back in classrooms to the degree that’s possible. The Abbott Laboratories tests would allow parents to know whether their symptomatic child has COVID-19. In some cases, states could undertake some baseline surveillance, like testing a proportion of students per week or per month to make sure that the incidence of COVID-19 is low. (Perrone and Freking, 9/28)
The New York Times: Behind The White House Effort To Pressure The C.D.C. On School Openings
Top White House officials pressured the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this summer to play down the risk of sending children back to school, a strikingly political intervention in one of the most sensitive public health debates of the pandemic, according to documents and interviews with current and former government officials. As part of their behind-the-scenes effort, White House officials also tried to circumvent the C.D.C. in a search for alternate data showing that the pandemic was weakening and posed little danger to children. (Mazzetti, Weiland and LaFraniere, 9/28)
