Trying alone is not enough
Tests can identify people who are sick, but by themselves it is not enough to break the chains of infection. That requires tracking the contacts of people who are sick so that they can be scanned and quarantined to prevent further spread of the virus.
But even as the US expands evidence to record levels, the country is woefully behind in contact tracing. The federal government has largely left that task to state and local health departments understaffed and underfunded that cannot keep up with the workload.
Experts and government officials warned months ago that the country would need a minimum of 100,000 contact trackers to reopen safely. But states are working with just a third of that number, a deficit that has helped fuel the recent surge in cases.
Rather than establishing a national strategy for contact tracking, the Trump administration has voiced its opinion on the state’s plans and has warned the public to maintain physical distance and practice robust handwashing.
Alaska Medical Director Anne Zink told lawmakers and reporters on Thursday that her small staff at the state Department of Health is beginning to feel overwhelmed.
“For the majority of this pandemic, 96 percent of our patients were contacted within two hours of being positive. That is rapidly eroding, ”he said at a roundtable organized by Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.). “Our cases are increasing, our public health personnel are exhausted, and people are having larger and larger group meetings. It used to be to get four or five contacts, and now you have 50 or 100 or ‘I don’t want to talk to you on the phone’. And so the ability to track is becoming incredibly challenging. “
Racial disparities persist
More than 20 million people in the United States live in coronavirus “test deserts,” and people of color are disproportionately represented in those counties with no test sites, the Surgo Foundation reported this week.
“If you are a black person living in rural America, you are almost three times more likely to live in a desert of trials where deaths are increasing, compared to any average rural American,” said Dr. Sema Sgaier, executive of the group. director.
The pandemic quickly exposed profound racial disparities in Americans’ general health and access to coronavirus testing and care. Congress has lobbied the Trump administration to do more to track and address the disproportionate impact of the virus on communities of color.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have established a partnership with Morehouse College, a historically black institution, to work on a national infrastructure to track how the pandemic is affecting racial minority groups and to help them better serve them. The administration has also worked to establish test sites at federally qualified pharmacies and health centers that serve “communities of high social vulnerability.”
But lawmakers and advocacy groups say the administration’s efforts are late and inadequate.
CDC Director Robert Redfield was forced to apologize to Congress earlier this month for failing to provide full information on racial disparities in the pandemic, as required by law. The administration released a report last week showing that blacks hired Covid-19 nearly three times more than whites, and were hospitalized four times more than whites. Hispanic and Asian people were also more likely to be infected and hospitalized than white people.
“The administration did not comprehensively plan for challenges at the national level, such as expanding testing and contact tracing, and ignored, and exacerbated, existing health disparities that left black, Latino and tribal communities to face the worst of this crisis, “said Sen Patty Murray (D-Wash.)
The tests are still decentralized
The Trump administration has avoided developing a national testing strategy, although it has helped route supplies to laboratories and connect hospitals to laboratories with available capacity.
But Democrats and public health experts say the United States needs a national plan, which includes stronger federal efforts to secure key supplies.
“The Trump administration really just wants to turn the page on Covid-19 even though we’re seeing skyrocketing numbers across the country,” said Chamber of Energy and Commerce President Frank Pallone (DN.J.). “This crisis requires a national testing plan, and it is extremely frustrating to see the administration continue to pay responsibility to the states.”
Ahead of the July 4 holiday weekend, health officials and experts called on Americans to reduce the spread of the virus by practicing social distancing and wearing a mask in public. Several states, including Texas, Florida, and California, have paused reopening efforts and have ordered the closing of bars as case numbers increase. Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued an executive order Thursday requiring the use of masks in most public settings.
“Especially this weekend, we should meet or participate in outdoor activities while maintaining a physical distance of at least six feet,” said Joshua Barocas, an assistant professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine. “I would urge people to stay home if they even feel a little bad.”
