U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, wrote to Christi Grimm, Principal Deputy Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), calling for an investigation into the Trump administration’s delays in developing, deploying and analyzing testing for the novel coronavirus.
The request follows recent press reports showing that as early as February, public health experts at the University of Washington recognized the threat posed by this infectious disease and sought approval to begin testing samples, while federal officials failed to take decisive action, according to a Murray news release. Since then, the administration has been unacceptably slow to get tests and results to people in need and unable to scale up testing to meet demand.
“I write to request you immediately launch an investigation into all parts of the processes undertaken by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop, deploy, and analyze diagnostic tests for the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19),” Murray wrote. “As people in my state and across the country struggle to get answers about the limited supply of tests, long delays in analyzing samples, difficulty obtaining testing supplies, and lack of reporting results, we must understand where HHS has erred in this process and implement lessons learned as soon as possible to mitigate the spread of this infectious disease and future diseases moving forward.”
Murray has been a sharp critic of the Trump administration’s delays and missteps in its response to the novel coronavirus—particularly regarding the slow roll out of diagnostic testing, which has severely impeded efforts to slow the spread of the virus. As Trump officials have offered differing estimates and timelines regarding testing capacity, and incorrectly suggested anyone could get tested, Murray has written to Vice President Pence and other administration officials demanding answers for the confusion and delay.
“Unfortunately, as COVID-19 reached the United States and we saw community spread, it became abundantly clear the federal government failed to take crucial steps and lost valuable time that resulted in a slower deployment of tests and reduced the nation’s ability to contain the spread of the disease,” Murray wrote in her letter. “It is evident the number of confirmed U.S. cases of COVID-19 continues to reflect not the reality of its spread, but instead severely limited testing and reporting. It is clear HHS’s grave errors in managing every aspect of the testing process – from development to deployment to analysis to communication – have undermined the country’s ability to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.”
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