{"id":17324,"date":"2022-05-24T12:44:02","date_gmt":"2022-05-24T16:44:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=17324"},"modified":"2022-05-24T12:44:02","modified_gmt":"2022-05-24T16:44:02","slug":"federal-testing-debacle-multiplied-covid-carnage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/05\/24\/federal-testing-debacle-multiplied-covid-carnage\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Testing Debacle Multiplied COVID Carnage"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"pb-3\">\n<h1 class=\"entry-title h2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Covid-test-kit-lines-rockville-1-21-2022-fda-and-moco-logos.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-17042\" src=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Covid-test-kit-lines-rockville-1-21-2022-fda-and-moco-logos-800x467.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"467\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Covid-test-kit-lines-rockville-1-21-2022-fda-and-moco-logos-800x467.jpg 800w, https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Covid-test-kit-lines-rockville-1-21-2022-fda-and-moco-logos-1024x597.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Covid-test-kit-lines-rockville-1-21-2022-fda-and-moco-logos-150x88.jpg 150w, https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Covid-test-kit-lines-rockville-1-21-2022-fda-and-moco-logos-768x448.jpg 768w, https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Covid-test-kit-lines-rockville-1-21-2022-fda-and-moco-logos.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fff.org\/explore-freedom\/article\/federal-testing-debacle-multiplied-covid-carnage\/\">Federal Testing Debacle Multiplied COVID Carnage<\/a><\/h1>\n<p class=\"published-by pt-2 pb-1 m-0\">by <span class=\"vcard\"><span class=\"author fn\"><a title=\"Posts by James Bovard\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fff.org\/author\/james-bovard\/\" rel=\"author\">James Bovard<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"entry-date pt-2\"><time class=\"updated\" datetime=\"2022-05-24\">May 24, 2022<\/time><\/p>\n<\/header>\n<section class=\"entry-content pb-3 clearfix\">\n<div class=\"article-icons-top d-flex align-items-center mb-3\">\n<div class=\"print-button d-flex align-items-center pr-2 pb-1 noprint\">\n<div id=\"id4498\" class=\"printomatic pom-small \" title=\"Click to Print\" data-print_target=\"article\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"social-share-buttons d-flex align-items-center noprint pl-1\"><span class=\"email-share-button share-button\"> EMAIL <\/span> <span class=\"twitter-share-button share-button\"><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" class=\"twitter-share-button twitter-share-button-rendered twitter-tweet-button\" title=\"Twitter Tweet Button\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets\/tweet_button.bbd13993eb53d3a11ac08f5e8cf9d6a4.en.html#dnt=false&amp;id=twitter-widget-0&amp;lang=en&amp;original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fff.org%2Fexplore-freedom%2Farticle%2Ffederal-testing-debacle-multiplied-covid-carnage%2F&amp;size=m&amp;text=Federal%20Testing%20Debacle%20Multiplied%20COVID%20Carnage%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Future%20of%20Freedom%20Foundation&amp;time=1653410269330&amp;type=share&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fff.org%2Fexplore-freedom%2Farticle%2Ffederal-testing-debacle-multiplied-covid-carnage%2F&amp;via=FutureofFreedom\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.fff.org\/explore-freedom\/article\/federal-testing-debacle-multiplied-covid-carnage\/\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>On a bitter cold January afternoon, lines of people awaiting free COVID tests stretched around the block at a Rockville, Maryland, public library. Looking at the scene reminded me of seeing East Germans lined up in endless queues in the 1980s to receive their potato and sauerkraut rations. But few of the people docilely waiting in Rockville recognized that their plight was the latest in a long series of federal fiascos hatched by a federal agency headquartered a few miles away.<\/p>\n<p>At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, President Donald Trump ludicrously proclaimed that \u201cAnybody that wants a test can get a test.\u201d That was baloney then, and, unfortunately, despite a barrage of political promises in the meantime, it is still malarkey today.<\/p>\n<h2><b>Botched testing under Trump<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>The Centers for Disease Control utterly botched the initial testing regime, sending out bogus, contaminated tests to detect COVID to state and local health departments that gave false readings. Trump boasted that those tests were \u201cperfect.\u201d The Food and Drug Administration helped turn the coronavirus from a deadly peril into a national catastrophe. Long after foreign nations had been ravaged and many cases had been detected in America, the FDA continued blocking private testing and forcing the nation\u2019s most innovative firms to submit to its command-and-control approach and satisfy irrelevant criteria to gain approval. As I warned in an April 2020 piece for the Mises Institute, \u201cMany Americans could die in the coming weeks and months thanks to the FDA\u2019s blockade on coronavirus testing. Should we consider those victims as martyrs for the principle of bureaucratic supremacy?\u201d FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn shrugged off his agency\u2019s disastrous policies in 2020: \u201cThere are always opportunities to learn from situations like this one.\u201d As the <i>New York Times<\/i> reported late last year, \u201cThe [CDC] distribution of faulty test kits, at a time when no other tests were authorized, set back health officials\u2019 efforts to detect and track the virus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden exploited those debacles to portray himself as St. George who would rescue the American people. In June 2020, Biden promised to set up a \u201cPandemic Testing Board\u201d along the lines of President Franklin D. Roosevelt\u2019s War Production Board. Biden hammered Trump\u2019s perceived negligence on COVID and rallied voters by promising: \u201cI will shut down the virus.\u201d A Biden campaign plan promised \u201cto massively surge a nationwide campaign and guarantee regular, reliable, and free access to testing.\u201d Shortly before Election Day, Biden declared that America needed \u201cfaster, cheaper screening tests that you could take right at home or in school. Look, what we have right now isn\u2019t anywhere near good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><b>Biden\u2019s empty promises<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>In his first week in office in January 2021, Biden created the COVID-19 Pandemic Testing Board. A few days later, Biden promised that congressional enactment of his American Rescue Plan legislation would \u201cramp up testing.\u201d In his televised speech on the first anniversary of COVID lockdowns on March 11, Biden promised, \u201cWe continue to work on making at-home testing available.\u201d However, the following month, when a team of health-agency officials pushed the White House to \u201cpurchase millions of rapid [COVID] tests,\u201d the administration rebuffed the proposal.<\/p>\n<p>In July, Biden promised, \u201cWe\u2019re going to deploy things like testing to expand detection of the virus.\u201d As the Delta variant spurred a COVID case surge, Biden promised in September that he was \u201ctaking steps to make testing more available, more affordable\u201d so that \u201cevery American, no matter their income, can access free and convenient tests.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The following month, top health experts from Harvard and private foundations pushed the Biden administration to purchase 700 million COVID test kits to distribute to Americans in December ahead of a winter surge. Biden denied last month that he had rejected such a proposal, but <i>Vanity Fair<\/i> exposed the details of how his officials nixed the plan. A Biden administration official told the <i>Washington Post <\/i>that \u201cWhite House health aides believed that once Americans were vaccinated, few would need testing.\u201d The administration\u2019s blunders were compounded because the CDC first ignored and then downplayed the surge in infections among fully vaccinated Americans.<\/p>\n<p>The Biden team continued to offer wishful thinking in lieu of tests. At a White House briefing on December 7, Biden COVID Czar Jeff Zients proclaimed, \u201cEveryone in America has access to free testing in an efficient and effective way, and we\u2019ve developed multiple access points for free testing.\u201d Almost two years into the pandemic, Zients sounded as deluded as Trump at the start of the COVID debacle.<\/p>\n<p>After chaos broke out in December with soaring infection rates and severe shortages of tests, Biden declared on January 4: \u201cI know this remains frustrating \u2014 believe me, it\u2019s frustrating to me \u2014 but we\u2019re making improvements [on testing]\u2026. Look, we have more capacity for in-person tests, and we should see waiting lines shorten and more appointments freed up.\u201d Biden promised, \u201cOne, drugstores and online websites are restocking. Two, you know \u2014 well, actually, so the more tests are available, we\u2019re going to continue to become available.\u201d Biden boasted of requiring private insurance companies to reimburse people for the cost of at-home tests, but that is scant consolation to people who cannot find tests anywhere.<\/p>\n<p>Biden took another victory lap when he announced that the Postal Service would deliver 500 million free COVID tests to Americans who requested them. But those tests arrived long after the omicron variant set records for infections and disrupted Americans\u2019 lives. The postal rescue mission was vexed in many areas because the tests were ruined if exposed for more than a few hours to temperatures below freezing. Perhaps Biden should have ordered the National Weather Service to ensure warmer temps for COVID test deliveries? One cynic quipped on Facebook, \u201cOf course, our efficient postal bureaucracy will promptly deliver these tests in time for your funeral.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><b>The failure of government testing<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Since the start of the COVID pandemic, the federal government has relied on a command-and-control approach that minimizes private innovation and maximizes dependency on federal bureaucrats. As ProPublica reported, \u201cMany companies with at-home tests have been stymied by an FDA review process that has flummoxed experts and even caused one agency reviewer to quit in frustration.\u201d David Paltiel, a professor at the Yale School of Public Health, groused, \u201cIt\u2019s an outrage that rapid tests aren\u2019t dirt cheap and plentiful on grocery store shelves\u201d \u2014 as they are in many European nations where private companies were not paralyzed by pointless bureaucratic edicts. Irene Bosch, an MIT scientist who developed a rapid COVID test in early 2020 that the FDA blocked, lamented, \u201cYou could have antigen [rapid] tests saving lives since the beginning of the pandemic. That\u2019s the sad story.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Scott Lincicome, a Duke Law School lecturer, recently noted in <i>Barron\u2019s<\/i> that the latest \u201cfix\u201d is \u201cactually the president\u2019s sixth promise to subsidize and plan our way to testing abundance.\u201d Germany permits sales of more than 60 rapid COVID tests, \u201cincluding several made in the United States for export only.\u201d Germans can easily buy tests for a dollar while many Americans can\u2019t find and purchase a test at any price. Instead of ample tests, \u201cthe Biden administration wasted 11 months and countless taxpayer dollars trying to boost domestic test production when what was most needed was to remove existing regulatory barriers and let the global economy do its thing,\u201d Lincicome noted.<\/p>\n<p>As ProPublica reported, the FDA has:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>never been enthusiastic about letting people test themselves. In the 1980s, the FDA banned home tests for HIV on the grounds that people who tested positive might do harm to themselves if they did not receive simultaneous counseling. In the 2010s, the agency cracked down on home genetic testing kits, concerned that people might make rash medical decisions as a result.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>David Kessler, who is Biden\u2019s chief science officer for COVID response, epitomized this mindset with his declaration in 1992 when he was FDA Commissioner: \u201cIf members of our society were empowered to make their own decisions \u2026 then the whole rationale for the [FDA] would cease to exist.\u201d Kessler derided \u201cfreedom of choice\u201d as an illusion unless people are presented only with government-approved choices. Kessler pushed through \u201creforms\u201d which increased FDA power over the medical industry and claimed that, as a result, the FDA was \u201ca place where, once again, the good guys could win.\u201d And how could Americans be sure that FDA enforcement agents were the good guys? Because they worked for the government.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, few Americans recognize FDA fingerprints on the COVID testing debacle. In Montgomery County, Maryland, home of the FDA, roughly 95 percent of adults in the county have already gotten at least one COVID vax injection. For residents of this liberal county, trusting government officials is the surest way to prove they \u201ctrust the science.\u201d Few folks were enraged by having to stand in line in the bitter cold for a long time with a bunch of potentially sick people in order to get a test that purportedly proves they are healthy enough to take a flight, return to school, or go to a doctor appointment.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich claimed victory, issuing a declaration on February 10: \u201cI am very proud of and pleased with our ability to be flexible and adaptable in our government and throughout our community. One such success over the last month has been the distribution of our [1.5 million] take-home rapid tests.\u201d But the vast majority of those tests were distributed long after the surge of COVID cases from the omicron variant had peaked. Elrich\u2019s boast was akin to a football player crowing about kicking a field goal a few hours after a football game ended.<\/p>\n<p>Testing pratfalls were typical of the botched responses to the COVID pandemic. On his first full day in office, Biden released his National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness. \u201cGoal 1\u201d was to \u201crebuild the trust of the American people\u201d by promising transparency in federal health and scientific policy. That pledge was quickly discarded like a forgotten campaign promise. Though a Biden memo promised to end \u201cimproper political interference in the work of federal scientists,\u201d the Food and Drug Administration\u2019s top vaccine experts resigned in protest last fall over White House pressure to rubber-stamp COVID booster shots for all adults. The FDA is seeking to delay fully disclosing Pfizer\u2019s application for COVID vaccine approval for 75 years. The CDC covered up the vast majority of so-called \u201cbreakthrough\u201d infections among fully vaccinated individuals, thereby enabling Biden to falsely claim last July that people who got vaxxed would not get COVID. On February 20, the <i>New York Times<\/i> reported that the CDC decided not to disclose its data on COVID vaccines and breakthrough infections, etc. because it feared the data \u201cmight be misinterpreted as the vaccines being ineffective.\u201d What else is CDC hiding?<\/p>\n<p>T<strong>he COVID-19 pandemic obliterated the myth that politicians spending more than a hundred billion dollars every year for science and public health would keep Americans safe. Unfortunately, there is no approved cure for blind faith in government. Federal health agencies have had more blunders than practically anyone expected during this pandemic. The least that Uncle Sam can do is get out of the way of private efforts to help Americans recognize the risks in their own live<\/strong>s.<\/p>\n<p><em>This article was originally published in the May 2022 edition of<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fff.org\/explore-freedom\/journal\/\">Future of Freedom<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Federal Testing Debacle Multiplied COVID Carnage by James Bovard May 24, 2022 EMAIL On a bitter cold January afternoon, lines of people awaiting free COVID tests stretched around the block at a Rockville, Maryland, public library. Looking at the scene reminded me of seeing East Germans lined up in endless queues in the 1980s to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2287,2349,402,3225,203,2313,3226,2286,2950],"class_list":["post-17324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-centers-for-disease-control","tag-covid","tag-fda","tag-kessler","tag-maryland","tag-pandemic","tag-rockville","tag-tests","tag-vaccine"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Federal Testing Debacle Multiplied COVID Carnage - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Federal debacles on Covid tests created chaos and undermined Americans&#039; ability to safeguard their health &amp; health of other people\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/05\/24\/federal-testing-debacle-multiplied-covid-carnage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Federal Testing Debacle Multiplied COVID Carnage - 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The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \\\"the roving inspector general of the modern state\\\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \\\"one-man truth squad.\\\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism &amp; Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \\\"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\\\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. 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The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism &amp; Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. 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