What States Should Get The Abbott Coronavirus Tests First?

April 2, 2020  11:35am

(WGTD)---There appears to be a bit of a disagreement between the White House and some public health officials over where to ship all those new Abbott Laboratories rapid response coronavirus tests. The Washington Post is reporting that some White House officials want to ship many of the tests, which can deliver results in as few as five minutes, to areas where there are fewer cases, such as rural states and parts of the South.  That rubs some public health officials the wrong way. The newspaper reports they favor directing them to the outbreak’s current hotspots, arguing that delays in test readings have sidelined many first responders and healthcare workers and made it harder to isolate the most contagious patients, taking a toll on communities across the country.

The Post also reported that competition for machines is so intense that governors and mayors have begun personally calling Abbott executives trying to make deals for the tests. For example, the paper said that Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan “secured the cellphone number of Miles White -- the chairman and outgoing chief executive of Abbott Labs -- and woke him up Sunday morning to beg for the test, because he knew the whole country would be calling.”  Detroit now has one of the nation’s highest rates of infection and one of the fastest rising death tolls. Mayor Dugan struck a deal with White for five machines and 5,000 kits that he said would be a “game changer,” allowing firefighters, police and nurses to get back on the job and out of quarantine.  525 Detroit police officers, 20% of the force, are currently quarantined. Eighty-five members will likely return to work by the end of this week and 91 others have tested positive.

Abbott spokesman John Koval told the newspaper they were working with the administration to deploy the tests where they will have the greatest impact. Without elaborating, he said states across the country had already begun to receive and use them. Abbott is shipping about 50,000 test daily.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/04/01/scramble-rapid-coronavirus-tests-everybody-wants/