Coronavirus tests have become widely available across the U.S., rendering the media’s constant criticism of President Trump supposed failure to provide adequate COVID-19 testing null and void.
After months of the coronavirus outbreak across the country, states have a surplus of tests but not enough people who need them.
According to a survey by the Washington Post, dozens of states reportedly have an abundance of test kits and services. The survey focused on governors’ offices and state health departments, and the results show positive data supporting the possibility of safely lifting stay-out-home orders and working toward normalizing Americans’ lives.
One state defying independent experts’ predictions, Utah, is conducting only 3,500 tests a day, with maximum capacity of 9,000, The Post reported.
In fact, health officials are practically begging people to get tested, with highway billboards stating “GET TESTED FOR COVID-19.”
Why is it that the president has been harshly criticized over testing by the media and top politicians, yet people are not showing up to utilize the now-abundantly available tests?
“It could be simply that people don’t want to be tested. It could be that people feel like they don’t need to be tested. It could be that people are so mildly symptomatic that they’re just not concerned that having a positive lab result would actually change their course in any meaningful way,” Utah Health Department spokesman Tom Hudachko theorized.
Florida has been a state that the president highlighted as a positive example.
“Ron DeSantis of Florida, the Governor, is doing a fantastic job in Florida. He said he’s got a little bit of the opposite problem. He’s got so much testing that people sit around and wait for people to come in; that they have a far — a great — overcapacity for testing, and there are numerous other states that have told me the same thing,” President Trump said in a briefing on May 11. “That’s, by the way, a good problem not a bad problem.”
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany confirmed the statement that the president made about the state of Florida having an “over capacity for testing.”
“There were extra tests,” McEnany said. “There wasn’t enough demand. There weren’t people showing up to use them all.”
As of April 29, Los Angeles has had such ample testing available that the city is allowing any resident, regardless of symptoms, to get tested as frequently as they want.
According to numbers given by The Associated Press by the mayor’s office, thousands of tests are not being used, The Associated Press reported.