The Rockefeller Foundation is calling for the United States to do 30 million tests for COVID-19 per week. They say currently the country is doing around 1 million tests per week, but in order to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, testing for far more people (symptomatic or not), and then having aggressive contact tracing to identify others who may have been exposed and should themselves be tested.
Rockefeller Foundation President Dr. Rajiv J. Shah says that aggressive testing is the key to reopening businesses and revitalizing the economy. He says the country could quickly get to 3 million tests per week by using research labs and university labs that are not currently doing COVID-19 testing. According to the CDC, to date, around 10.8 million people have been tested. That’s around 3% of the U.S. population.
President Donald Trump says he does not favor more testing as that will only result in more people testing positive.
Shah says they developed this plan by enlisting experts and leaders from science, industry, academia, public policy, and government – across sectors and political ideologies – to create a clear, pragmatic, data-driven, actionable plan to beat back Covid-19 and get Americans back to work more safely.
Dr. Shah led the ebola response in West Africa in 2014, and said the United States deployed 3,000 troops to help. He said the key to tamping down the ebola crisis was testing, and fast results, to be able to find those with the disease and then isolate and treat them.
Dr. Shah says it’s important to test not just those with symptoms, as is generally the practice nationwide, but also essential workers in order to get people back to work and get the economy moving. He said contact tracing must be part of the effort to find those who have been exposed and test them as appropriate.
The Testing Action Plan also calls for creating a national common data platform to be able to easily share information. It also addresses the current testing situation, the barriers that exist now, and ways to address those barriers.
The report notes that after the 2008 recession, the impact was not only economic but in health, with more alcoholism, depression, domestic abuse, and deaths. It says getting the testing to allow the economy to come back more quickly is part of the solution.
To date, the U.S. has nearly 1.5 million cases and nearly 90,000 deaths. The nation’s economy has essentially halted, although 48 states are beginning to slowly allow businesses to reopen.
The Rockefeller Foundation was founded more than a century ago, with a mission to end energy poverty, achieve health for all, nourish the world, and expand economic opportunity. Its website says it’s given more than $17 billion in current dollars to support thousands of organizations and individuals worldwide.
For the full Rockefeller Foundation Testing Action Plan, click here.
