(PresidentialWire.Com)- The White House Coronavirus Task Force is working as quickly as possible to roll out coronavirus tests that could help identify the virus and reduce the economic impact of the coronavirus, and it looks like things might finally kick up a gear in by May.
According to Adm. Brett Giroir, the Health and Human Services assistant secretary, the government is planning on rolling millions of coronavirus tests.
“If things work out the way we believe they will, we will have millions on the market by May in a sophisticated way, in a prospective way that we get the surveillance we need,” Adm. Giroir said during the daily Coronavirus Task Force press briefing.
Incredibly, the tests won’t just be good for those currently suffering from the virus, but will also be able to identify whether a person has already gone through the virus and developed an immunity.
“We can test people to see if they’ve been exposed, are immune, and can go back to work,” Giroir said.
The reason why tests could potentially be so important is that it allows people who are unlikely to contract the virus again to go back out to work and live life as normal, while those who are vulnerable stay at home. It also allows scientists to get better data about how many people have already experienced the disease asymptomatically, which could potentially change fatality rates drastically.
Giroir told the press that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is working alongside the National Institute of health to validate the tests that have been purchased and then distribute them across the United States.
The news might be dampened by reports that similar tests bought by the United Kingdom government, however, were found to be faulty. The British government announced in March that they had purchased the tests from China, but recently found that the antibody tests only work on those who have experienced extreme symptoms, making them pretty much useless.
Being slightly behind the United Kingdom, however, could prove a benefit. Giroir said he was “very excited about it” as it “allows us to have very widespread tens and tens of millions of people screened with a finger prick on the spot.”
Let’s hope, if the tests are from China, that they work!
