Fauci: Coronavirus testing system is ‘failing’

Amid rising concerns about the government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease, told Congress that the US’s process for testing for coronavirus is “a failing.”

Speaking before the House Oversight Committee on Thursday, Fauci said that “The system is not really geared to what we need right now.” Fauci is a member of the White House’s coronavirus task force.

“Let’s admit it. The fact is the way the system was set up was that the public health component … was a system where you put it out there in the public, and a physician asks for it and you get it,” Fauci explained.

“The idea of anybody getting it easily the way people in other countries are doing it, we’re not set up for that. Do I think we should be? Yes, but we’re not.”

The White House and CDC have been criticized for their hesitancy to test broad swaths of the population for coronavirus, which has given rise to concerns that there are far more cases of the deadly virus in the US than have been officially identified.

Dr. Stephen Redd, MD, head of the CDC’s Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response testified on Wednesday it would be impossible to test all 320 million Americans for the virus. He also testified that the total number of people that the CDC has tested since the outbreak began is only 1,784.