Speaking about the Need for a National Plan to Coordinate the Distribution of COVID Testing Supplies, Senator Hassan Said, “The Frustrating Thing for Me…Is to Hear the President Say Anybody Can Get Tested Who Wants It, And That We Have Plenty of Testing If Only the Governors Knew Where to Find It.”
In an interview with Chris Ryan, Senator Maggie Hassan discussed the importance of increased testing capacity for the COVID-19 Virus and called for a national testing strategy. The Senator also spoke about legislation which is being proposed with the goal of restarting the economy.
Senator Hassan stated that the key to getting through the COVID pandemic is to develop a robust testing system which will identify people who have the virus. Then, with public health work, which is guided by testing, the people that were contacted by those COVID infected individuals need to be traced and those people who have been exposed to the disease would be isolated. The Senator is also calling for a national system of testing which would include President Trump invoking the Defense Production Act. Doing that would put us on a wartime footing for setting a national testing goal and would ensure the production of the testing and PPE-Personal Protection Equipment which the nation will need to deal with this pandemic. The current situation of each state scrambling to obtain needed supplies and bidding up the prices would be eliminated.
The Senator debunked the President’s often quoted statement about the availability of testing by citing conversations with several governors and examples of individuals having difficulty getting tested for the Coronavirus. She has had phone conversations with President Trump and Vice President Pence, and she gave both men credit for working hard on this problem.
Senator Hassan rejects the common perception that there are only two ways of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic: 1) If you want a healthy economy, then you have to risk people’s lives; 2) If you want to keep people safe, then you have to shut down the economy. The Senator advocates a third approach of using testing and public health contact tracing which has been implemented in several countries which are now reopening their economies.
When she was asked about privacy concerns involved with contact tracing, the Senator is confident that the work done by our public health officials would be consistent with American values of privacy and that it is needed to safely reopen our economy.
In the last part of the interview, Senator Hassan discussed some of the problems with the roll out of the CARES Act-Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. Unfortunately, many small businesses, who were the intended recipients for financial assistance, in the CARES Act were squeezed out by big corporations. In the supplemental legislation, which is currently being negotiated in Congress, the Senator says that money for the PPP-Payroll Protection Plan will be earmarked for small and community lenders which are more likely to be dealing with small businesses. The CARES Act and the supplemental spending which is now being considered were designed to deal with the immediate, short term effects of the shutdown. Looking forward, there is a great deal of economic uncertainty and unforeseen problems caused by closing all nonessential businesses. Senator Hassan recognizes the economic impact of the shutdown is unprecedented. The Senator believes that future legislation must include other relief mechanisms and economic support mechanisms. In addition to replenishing the PPP programs and disaster loans from the CARES Act, the next stimulus package will include funding for hospitals and increased testing capacity. Also, there will be aid to state and local governments to make up for the drop in revenues due to the decrease in economic activity during the shutdown.
