Under the new arrangement, CDC Director Robert Redfield and Commissioner of Food and Drugs Stephen Hahn “will report to the secretary through Dr. Giroir for all issues and activities associated with COVID-19 diagnostic testing,” the HHS official said.
The administration has struggled to meet the spiraling nationwide demand for test kits, and has faced growing questions from lawmakers about early mistakes at multiple levels of government.
Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, acknowledged the ongoing problems with testing in a television interview on Friday morning. But he said that, with the growing involvement of the private sector in the testing process, “it’s going to be markedly improved.”
“The companies that generally do these kinds of tests for a living are now going to be major-league involved in getting this available to the public,” Fauci said. “Whereas before, it was mostly on the burden of the CDC as a public health organization.”
Fauci declined to put a specific timeline on when the testing backlog would improve, but he indicated it would ramp up dramatically within days.
“Right now, the FDA, Secretary Azar, the CDC, all of us together have been now pushing with the task force, so that within – and I would say, you know, it’s dangerous to give times, but I would think within a week, we’re going to start seeing a real acceleration of testing,” he said.
Source: politico.com
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