WA Sen. Murray calls for investigation into coronavirus testing failures
Mar 20, 2020, 7:49 AM | Updated: Oct 8, 2024, 7:26 am
WA Sen. Patty Murray. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Washington Sen. Patty Murray issued a letter Thursday calling for an investigation into the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, over a lack of coronavirus testing in the outbreak’s early stages.
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“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,” the letter, addressed to Principal Deputy Inspector General Christi Grimm, reads.
Issues with testing capacity have persisted even today, with the Washington State Department of Health pointing out Thursday that “limited testing supplies continue to be a significant issue for the COVID-19 response.”
Sen. Murray claims the federal government “failed to take crucial steps and lost valuable time” in ramping up its testing as the virus began to spread. She also detailed efforts from the government to stop the Seattle Flu Study from testing its samples for coronavirus early on in Washington’s outbreak.
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“University of Washington researchers working on the Seattle Flu Study attempted to mobilize their network of research laboratories to deploy a test for COVID-19, but they ran into barriers with the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and state regulators,” Murray outlined.
Despite the government denying a request to test those samples, the study’s researchers went ahead and ran tests anyway, ultimately pinpointing the first community-spread case of coronavirus in the state.
In asking for an investigation, Murray hopes to determine the exact processes HHS employed to “develop, deploy, and review” coronavirus testing, the processes that were in place ahead of the outbreak, the individuals responsible for the CDC’s testing infrastructure, and whether HHS was “adequately prepared” for an increased demand for tests both in Washington and across the U.S.
