Speaker 1: It's Friday, December ten. I'm Oscar Emiras from the Daily
Speaker 1: Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is Reopening America.
Speaker 1: Since the start of the pandemic, the testing infrastructure in
Speaker 1: the US has been marred by stumbles. Now as President
Speaker 1: Biden is putting more emphasis on rapid tests to help
Speaker 1: fight COVID, these tests are often out of stock and
Speaker 1: still too expensive for many. Even as the new rules
Speaker 1: say insurers would pay for these tests, it could be
Speaker 1: difficult to get the reimbursements. Lena's son, health reporter at
Speaker 1: the Washington Post, joins us for more on rapid COVID test.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us, Lena, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about these rapid coronavirus tests. There's
Speaker 1: still hard to find in many places. The cost of
Speaker 1: them could be an issue for a lot of people.
Speaker 1: But we saw recently President Biden announced that he wanted
Speaker 1: to make this a bigger part of his plan to
Speaker 1: fight coronavirus. Obviously, with the rise of the omicron variant,
Speaker 1: we want to test as many people as we can,
Speaker 1: and it's it's been one of those things that kind
Speaker 1: of fell by the wayside when there was so much
Speaker 1: emphasis put on vaccines, the testing infrastructure lagged a little bit,
Speaker 1: and we're just really far behind in that sense of thing. So, Lena,
Speaker 1: what are we seeing with these rapid tests? Well, I
Speaker 1: think what happened is that when the rapid tests first
Speaker 1: came out, they were fairly novel idea. And you know,
Speaker 1: in the spring, the huge emphasis by the administration was
Speaker 1: on vaccination. And vaccination, of course, is still the best
Speaker 1: way to fight the coronavirus. Right. You know, if you're vaccinated,
Speaker 1: you're much less likely to get infected, get sick, and die. Right,
Speaker 1: it's much better. Prevention testing has been like the original
Speaker 1: sin in this pandemic for the United States since the
Speaker 1: very beginning, starting last year, they didn't get the test right.
Speaker 1: They didn't realize people could spread this without symptoms. And
Speaker 1: then I think when with the push for the vaccination,
Speaker 1: there was less of an emphasis on the test and
Speaker 1: there was a fall off in demand, and so there
Speaker 1: was not as much manufacturing going on, and by the
Speaker 1: time delta hit and we need did to have more tests,
Speaker 1: the manufacturing industry had to ramp back up, and that
Speaker 1: took time, and in the meantime, you know, people really
Speaker 1: want these there they realized they're easier to use. In
Speaker 1: New Hampshire, right after Thanksgiving, residents were able to apply
Speaker 1: to get free tests delivered to their door and eight
Speaker 1: hundred thousands of one million tests were gone in less
Speaker 1: than twenty four hours. Of course, they were free and
Speaker 1: they were delivered right to your door. And I think
Speaker 1: what you see here is a difference in policy between
Speaker 1: the United States and some other countries. Jeff Signs, the
Speaker 1: White House coronavirus sort of coordinator, has been asked again
Speaker 1: and again why doesn't the United States do what other
Speaker 1: countries do. In the UK? You know, these rapid tests
Speaker 1: are free and available, and White House has said that
Speaker 1: this is something they want to do more efficient and
Speaker 1: to give people an opportunity to get them. Um, but
Speaker 1: you know, also cost a lot more money right to
Speaker 1: buy tests people to send them to everybody in the country.
Speaker 1: That's on the consumer level. Then on the state level,
Speaker 1: different states have said that they've ordered these over the
Speaker 1: counter tests, and it's important for states to be able
Speaker 1: to use them because let's say your school system and
Speaker 1: you want to make sure that kids don't have to
Speaker 1: stay home for quarantine if you can do test to
Speaker 1: stay which is to test them serially, make sure nobody
Speaker 1: is positive. Then kids can stay in class and it
Speaker 1: doesn't have such an impact. But of course you need
Speaker 1: a lot of tests, Yeah, definitely, and that you know, basically,
Speaker 1: if some of a kid had gotten exposed to somebody,
Speaker 1: they would send them home immediately. Now with these tests
Speaker 1: to stay programs, they're tested and as long as they're negative,
Speaker 1: they can stay in class. So there's less disruptions there.
Speaker 1: And you know, to your point about kind of you know,
Speaker 1: some of the guidance and some of the missteps. You know,
Speaker 1: when the vaccines came out, they said, hey, if you're
Speaker 1: fully vaccinated, you don't need to even test as often.
Speaker 1: And the ripple effects of that, you know, Abbott laid
Speaker 1: off a bunch of workers because they saw demand dropping
Speaker 1: for these tests. So there's a lot that was at play.
Speaker 1: And as I mentioned, you know, President Biden made the
Speaker 1: announcement he wants to increase the testing. He wants private
Speaker 1: insurans to reimburse people when they buy these tests. But
Speaker 1: a lot of experts say that could even be a
Speaker 1: nonstarter because it requires a person who pay it out
Speaker 1: of pocket. First. Then you've got to submit receipts, and
Speaker 1: it's kind of a big hassle to deal with the
Speaker 1: insurance companies on that front. Right, they call that pay
Speaker 1: and chase. Right, everything we know about health public health
Speaker 1: tells us that the fewer barriers you put up for somebody,
Speaker 1: the greater the chance that the thing that you're trying
Speaker 1: to do will get accomplished. So if I had free
Speaker 1: tests on every corner, then yeah, maybe people would get
Speaker 1: tested more. But if I have to go to CVS,
Speaker 1: buy the tests, and then keep the receipt, then figure
Speaker 1: out how to submit to insurance, set aside the time
Speaker 1: to submit to insurance, call the insurance company. If I
Speaker 1: don't get the stuff right or I don't get my reimbursement,
Speaker 1: that's just like four more things I have to do.
Speaker 1: And I think that that that's going to make it harder.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think that's something they're trying. This trial
Speaker 1: program that they started in April called Yes to the
Speaker 1: COVID Test was distributed in a couple of places around
Speaker 1: the country, and they made more than about five point
Speaker 1: five million free rapid tests available, and in some places
Speaker 1: they were snapped up very quickly, in other places not
Speaker 1: as quickly, but I think that probably had to do
Speaker 1: with the novelty of a rapid test. And then the
Speaker 1: other point that I wanted to share. Maybe people have
Speaker 1: noticed this is up until very recently, when you bought
Speaker 1: one of these test kits, you read the instructions, it
Speaker 1: tells you, Okay, put six drops in here and then
Speaker 1: open this up and then look for the pink line
Speaker 1: or whatever. It tells you exactly how to use it,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't really give you a lot of guidance
Speaker 1: as when is the best time to use it and
Speaker 1: what do you do if you get a positive result.
Speaker 1: And CDC recently updated guidance to give people more guidance
Speaker 1: to explain the circumstances under which these would be useful. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean you kind of leave people down their own
Speaker 1: devices with that, and you have a test and you know,
Speaker 1: to interpret it oftentimes is difficult. The pandemic fight has
Speaker 1: always been a multi pronged effort and testing, as you
Speaker 1: mentioned in the article, right for the two years, as
Speaker 1: long as we've been fighting, it has always been you know,
Speaker 1: not given the attention that it needed. It was supposed
Speaker 1: to be the thing to get us out of the
Speaker 1: pandemic in the first place. Then it came to vaccines
Speaker 1: and all of this fell to the wayside. So I
Speaker 1: know there's a lot more money being put into this.
Speaker 1: I know there's a lot more attention on it now.
Speaker 1: So we'll see if it plays out and if the
Speaker 1: US can get their testing standards up with all of this.
Speaker 1: Lena's son, health reporter at the National Desk at the
Speaker 1: Washington Post. Thank you very much for joining us, Thank
Speaker 1: you for having me. I'm Oscar Ramirez and this has
Speaker 1: been reopening America. Don't forget that. For today's big news stories,
Speaker 1: you can check me out on the Daily Dive podcast
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