The failure to test for COVID-19 gave the virus a head start in the United States, and while things are improving slowly, it’s still basically a big flaming mess. One of the glimmers of hope comes from the new rapid tests from Abbott Laboratories—but now there’s the question of where those tests will go. And since we’re talking about the Trump administration, there’s no reason for faith that the tests will go where they are most needed.
Will the rapid tests go to places already hard hit by the virus, so that first responders and health care workers can come out of quarantine and get back on the job if they test negative? Or will they go to rural and southern states? That’s the direction the Trump administration is headed, and there is one potentially legitimate reason—to, as a source “familiar with the matter” told The Washington Post, “figure out the spread in places where we don’t quite understand it now.” But again, we’re talking about the Trump administration, which means that the real reason to prioritize rural and southern states would likely be rewarding Trump allies and supporters—just as states headed by Trump allies have gotten more protective equipment.
“Hot zones need them the most,” a Yale Medical School professor told The Post, ”but everyone needs them.” And there’s the problem: The Trump administration’s incompetence has created a situation where the need far outstrips the supply, and now the question is the politics of rationing. Another public health expert said that the decision to send the rapid tests to rural areas and the South “instead of to hotspots like that would have to be part of a plan with a scientific rationale. And I haven’t seen one at this point.”
Of course there’s no plan with a scientific rationale. There may be a gesture at one from Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx as they try to walk that line between staying on Donald Trump’s good side and promoting science. But planning with a scientific rationale is not how this administration works, especially when tests are badly needed everywhere and there are only enough tests for some places to catch up to the need.