Editor,
Editor in chief Jon Mays’ Friday column, “Scoring some antigen tests” followed by the Daily Journal’s staff report in the weekend edition, “Rep. Eshoo urges COVID test expansion for Medicare recipients,” exposed the flaws in the Biden administration’s approach to testing as a key component to mitigating coronavirus transmission.
Last month, investigative journalist, Katherine Eban, wrote in Vanity Fair about how the Biden administration “dismissed a bold plan to ramp up rapid testing ahead of the holidays.” I wrote about her findings in a post for the planning news website, Planetizen.com, “The Great American COVID Testing Failure.”
Sadly, the Biden administration failed to follow the advice of the World Health Organization that warned that vaccines alone would not slow the spread of the coronavirus — it has to be a combination of public health measures.
What’s particularly disturbing is seeing how backward the United States is compared to other countries such as the U.K., Singapore and India, which subsidize rapid test production costs, making them free or nominally priced. Residents test themselves regularly as the Mays family does — but at a much lower cost, if any.
U.S. Rep. Eshoo seeks to have Medicare pay for the costs for seniors who lack private insurance who must “pay out-of-pocket for additional at-home tests,” referring to the four free tests available at COVIDtests.gov. After three phone calls to my Medicare advantage provider, I was told to submit test kit receipts for reimbursement.
It didn’t have to be like this if President Biden hadn’t relegated testing.
Irvin Dawid
Burlingame
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