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Microsoft founder Bill Gates suggested that the US government healthcare companies reimburse coronavirus testing within 24 hours in an interview with tech magazine Wired published on Friday.
States that have seen an influx of cases in recent weeks, such as Florida and California, are struggling to get test results back to potentially infected people, making infection attempts more difficult because people do not know if they have the virus.
“That’s just stupidity,” Gates said of slow test results, adding that companies would fix their delay issues “overnight” if there were a compensation program that could boost efficiency efforts.
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“The majority of all U.S. testing is complete waste, disgusting,” Gates told Wired. “If you do not care what time the date is and you are reimbursed at the same level, they will obviously take every customer. Because they earn contemptible money, and it is mostly rich people who get access to that.”
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He added that the government could allow companies that complete tests within 24 hours “a little extra;” pay would be “normal” for companies that can complete tests in 48 hours, and pay would be “nothing” for companies that cannot complete tests after 48 hours.
“They will repair it tonight,” he told Wired.
He then took a shot at the government’s COVID-19 response efforts, saying that the reason such a compensation program does not yet exist is because determining it would be the responsibility of the government.
Medical staff from hospitals in Riverside (California) University Health Systems are conducting a coronavirus test. (Photo by Bob Riha, Jr./Getty Images)
“The federal government is introducing that compensation system,” he said. “When we tell them to change it, they say, ‘As far as we can tell, we’re just doing a great job, it’s great!’ “Here we are, this is August. We’re the only country in the world where we spend the most money on testing. Confirm the fee.”
He added that he has proposed for such a system without utility.
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“I’ve been to that trap, and people are tired of listening to me,” Gates told Wired.
U.S. coronavirus testing drops even as infections remain high and deaths rise by more than 1,000 a day, a worrying trend that officials have largely attributed to Americans who are discouraged from waiting hours to undergo a test get and days or weeks to learn the results.
In this June 30, 2020, stock photo, people are usually waiting for a test drive site for COVID-19 in Miami Beach, Fla. (Photo: Lynne Sladky / Associated Press)
An Associated Press analysis found that the number of tests per day in the past two weeks slipped to 750,000, with counts in 22 states.
This includes places like Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri and Iowa where the percentage of positive tests is high and continues to climb, an indicator that the virus is not yet spreading.
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Widespread testing is considered essential for managing the outbreak, as the US approaches a mammoth 5 million confirmed infections – the most from any country in the world – and more than 161,000 deaths from more than 720,000 worldwide.
President Trump suggested at a campaign rally in June that he wanted to delay the results of COVID-19 tests so that positive case numbers stop increasing.
“If you test to that extent, you will find more people, you will find more cases,” he said. “I said that to my people, ‘Slow the testing down, please.’ They test and they test. “
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
