By Dick Hall-Sizemore
The President does not seem able to formulate a national strategy for COVID-19 testing. So, I am proposing one:
- Say to Abbot Laboratories, “Here is $1 billion. Turn over the rights to your new testing machine to the government.”
- Say to Abbot Laboratories, “Here is $100 million. Train an army of technicians to use your testing machines.”
- Invoke the National Defense Procurement Act and say to various labs and manufacturers, “Here is $2 billion. Manufacture xx number of the Abbot testing machines and the needed reagents and other supplies and deliver them to the federal government.”
- Announce a national schedule for distributing the Abbot machines and supplies to state governments, based on need and demonstrated level of virus outbreak.
- Say to the nation’s governors, “Set up a testing schedule and procedures that best suit your state and allow people to start working as soon as you determine it is safe, based on testing.”
The dollar amounts are somewhat arbitrary and subject to change, based on better projections than my SWAG.
