Mick Mulvaney, the United States’ special envoy for Northern Ireland who previously served as President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, believes that America’s testing capabilities for the novel coronavirus are still way short of where they should be.
In an editorial published by CNBC, Mulvaney argues that the next economic stimulus package passed by Congress must address shortfalls in the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chief among those shortfalls, he writes, is its ability to quickly test people for the disease and deliver their results in a timely fashion.
“I know it isn’t popular to talk about in some Republican circles, but we still have a testing problem in this country,” Mulvaney writes. “My son was tested recently; we had to wait 5 to 7 days for results. My daughter wanted to get tested before visiting her grandparents, but was told she didn’t qualify. That is simply inexcusable at this point in the pandemic.”
President Donald Trump has regularly boasted about the United States’ testing capabilities, and even held an event at the White House earlier this year with signs that declared, “America leads the world in testing.”
In fact, the president has gone so far as to blame increased testing for the rise in coronavirus infections, even though the positivity rate of the tests has risen to such an extent that the number of new cases cannot plausibly be pinned on increased testing capabilities.