HHS spends more on coronavirus testing, appoints a coordinator

The administration said Friday it will expand testing for the new coronavirus by providing over $1 million to companies whose kits can detect the disease in an hour, as President Trump shifted blame for diagnostic fumbles onto his predecessor and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention itself.

The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority is dispatching almost $680,000 to DiaSorin Molecular, LLC of Cypress, California, and nearly $600,000 to QIAGEN LLC of Germantown, Maryland.

“Americans need access to rapid diagnostic testing. The sooner clinicians, patients, and public health officials know whether someone is infected with the novel coronavirus, the sooner they can take action to mitigate the spread of COVID-19,” said BARDA Director Rick A. Bright.

Health Secretary Alex Azar also designated Admiral Brett Giroir, an assistant HHS secretary for public health, as the federal government’s point man for testing Friday.

Members of Congress are fuming over the lack of access to tests back home, saying the American process that filters patients through the doctor’s office has put the U.S. behind the surveillance capabilities — including drive-thru service — set up in South Korea and other nations.

Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease scientist, said the U.S. needs to catch up, telling Congress the current setup amounts to a “failing.”

Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, co-founder of the tech retail behemoth Alibaba Group, said he’s ready to ship 500,000 test kits and 1 million masks to the U.S.

He said he’s drawing from his own experience in China, where the outbreak began and killed tens of thousands in Hubei Province. The Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation previously donated to Japan, South Korea, Italy, Iran and Spain.

“The crisis presents a huge challenge to all humankind in a globalized world,” Mr. Ma said. “The pandemic we face today can no longer be resolved by any individual country. Rather, we need to combat the virus by working hand-in-hand. At this moment, we can’t be this virus unless we eliminate boundaries to resources and share our know-how and hard-earned lessons.”

Mr. Trump on Friday looked outside the White House for blame.

He said the CDC sat on its hands for years and that President Obama’s system was too centralized to activate the private sector’s abilities. He also said the prior administration did a poor job handling the last major outbreak, of H1N1 flu, in 2009.

“For decades the @CDCgov looked at, and studied, its testing system, but did nothing about it. It would always be inadequate and slow for a large scale pandemic, but a pandemic would never happen, they hoped. President Obama made changes that only complicated things further,” Mr. Trump tweeted.

“Their response to H1N1 Swine Flu was a full scale disaster, with thousands dying, and nothing meaningful done to fix the testing problem, until now,” Mr. Trump said. “The changes have been made and testing will soon happen on a very large scale basis. All Red Tape has been cut, ready to go!”