Our bipartisan bill empowers states to get the testing necessary to suppress the coronavirus
A man shows symptoms of covid-19 and seeks a test. He can schedule an appointment, but he can’t be seen for three days. To protect others, he stays home from work and sacrifices his income.
A family goes to a covid-19 testing site for precautionary tests before a long road trip. One of them gets results in two days. Another person’s results take a week, and the others’ never come back. Because none of them seems sick, they go on the trip anyway, unsure whether one of them is spreading the virus without symptoms.
These all-too-common stories illustrate why we — a Harvard professor and two U.S. senators, one a Republican doctor and the other a Democratic former businesswoman — came together to write a bill to get our country’s covid-19 testing on track so we can safely reopen the country.
Americans are suffering; more than 190,000 people have died. Everyone wants to reopen schools safely, get back to work and restart the economy fully. But we are not winning the battle against the novel coronavirus if the cautious woman is turned away when she seeks testing, or if we are hoping the symptomatic man will stay home from work, or, perhaps worse, if a worried family goes to another state without covid-19 results. Testing has to be readily available — and results quickly realized — before covid-19 can be truly suppressed.
The arrival of a vaccine — anticipated over the coming months — would not change the need for testing over the coming year. Although vaccine developments are promising, getting the full quantities of vaccine the country needs is projected to take several months, perhaps up to a year. As vaccines come on line, we will continue to need all our tools of disease suppression: masking, physical distancing and, crucially, testing. Breakthroughs in testing technology in recent months have made tests an even more powerful tool for disease suppression than was the case last spring — if our technologies are fully unleashed.
Our bipartisan bill — the Suppress COVID-19 Act — invests in the testing and contact tracing needed not merely to contain the virus but also to suppress it.
We do this by empowering states to work together through interstate compacts and regional agreements that allow them to overcome weaknesses in the testing supply chain that can overwhelm a state forced to act alone. Our bill gives states the federal guidance and the resources to form these partnerships. By banding together and sharing resources, states in the region have the market power to purchase tests and supplies at lower prices, and to more easily access and deliver innovative tests as they come on line. This also signals to manufacturers of tests and supplies that demand for their products will be there if they ramp up capacity. Small and rural states are also protected from being crowded out of the market by larger states.
Our bill gives states the funding they need not only to conduct tests but also to hire the contact tracers and update data systems to help locate, test and effectively isolate those who may have been exposed to the coronavirus. As a nation, we’re only halfway to the numbers we need.
The bill also recognizes that contact tracers need not merely to find those who come into contact with the virus but also to know — in real time — which labs are available, what tests those labs can use and how to link a sample with the specific test a lab uses. Our legislation provides support to states in building new systems to do this complicated work.
To accomplish this, we target $50 billion to fund testing and contact tracing and to authorize the formation of these regional compacts. We set aside $5 billion to help states that join these partnerships. The investment will help today and leave behind infrastructure of value for future pandemics.
Importantly, our bipartisan effort is co-sponsored by Senate colleagues from both sides of the aisle. It also has bipartisan support in the House, with Reps. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) and Phil Roe (R-Tenn.) leading the effort.
Let us be clear. The Suppress COVID-19 Act is not the only strategy required to beat this viral pandemic. Yet testing is critical, and the United States continues to struggle. Our bill would provide a path to build up our nation’s testing capacity and on-the-ground activity to suppress covid-19 and safely reopen the country.
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