White House Reverses Course on At-Home COVID Tests

Today on TAP: It’s amazing what you can do when you just govern.

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A couple of weeks ago, NPR’s Mara Liasson asked in a White House press briefing why the U.S. wasn’t just sending out COVID test kits to every American. “Should we just send one to every American?” press secretary Jen Psaki sniffed derisively.

Today, the White House announced a plan to send COVID test kits to every American.

So yes, outrage does have its place, I think we can say. Psaki was really pilloried for her comments, and the backlash caused a shift in posture.

The initial plan to have insurance companies reimburse for the purchase of over-the-counter tests was ill-considered. Nobody should be subjected to the hassle of insurance reimbursement over a $25 two-pack of test kits. And the problem was availability, in addition to cost: Nobody can find a drugstore that has any tests in stock.

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The plan goes beyond sending a couple of kits to people at home, however. New federal testing sites will be set up across the country to expand capacity. And the administration is promising “a website where Americans can go to get at-home tests delivered to their home—for free.” To ensure adequate supply, the White House is invoking the Defense Production Act to increase manufacturing of the tests.

There’s more to do here. The biggest thing would be to increase the approved tests in the U.S. beyond just the two that happen to be produced by the former companies of the one guy at the FDA who’s the main bottleneck on approvals. Flooding the market with tests could have solved this problem a while ago. If a test is available and being used in Europe, it ought to be approved for use here.

But there are a lot of takeaways from the administration’s reversal. First, they can be embarrassed into doing the right thing, especially when the right thing is so obvious and clear. Second, they can set up enduring, public systems that are the first step to dealing with COVID on an ongoing basis as it becomes endemic. This is the step to calming the panic that proceeds every outbreak, with systems in place to deal with them.

But the third and most important lesson is that presidents can govern. I note the absence of Joe Manchin from any of these announcements over tests. The White House had authority to come up with a better way to make sure everyone who needs tests can get them. The first attempt was terrible; they learned and came up with a better one. They had all of the authority to do so. And so they did it.

It’s a good concept!

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