Dr. Marcus Plescia, Chief Medical Officer for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, said states are preparing for the worst while hoping for the best. While people remain unvaccinated, he said, mutations of the coronavirus remain inevitable.
“We’ve all talked about having this pathogen become endemic, meaning it’s going to be around for a while and we’re going to have these same kinds of issues pop up, where there’s a new variant and we have to look at what the implications of that might be,” Plescia said.
“Our message to the public is that we see this as the future, but we’re not going to be complacent about it. Every variant has to be taken very seriously, and until we know more, we have to prepare for the worst,” Plescia said.
President Joe Biden announced his winter surge COVID-19 plan on Thursday, which includes asking private health insurance companies to reimburse people who buy over-the-counter, at-home rapid tests for the coronavirus. The association praised those measures, saying that access to testing, especially those tests that can be taken at home, will increase participation.
“With respect to testing in particular, that was to me one of the hallmarks of the winter plan. We concur with the fact that testing is of paramount importance right now. Indeed, I think for this next phase of the pandemic, rapid access to rapid testing will be key — whether it’s contending with potential surges driven by omicron, or looking at rapid access to oral antiviral therapies like molnupiravir and Paxlovid, both of which will need to have rapid testing,” Shah said.
He added that it’s important to ensure that the supply is available to meet that forthcoming demand. Several states are facing challenges acquiring large volumes of the Abbott BinaxNOW home test, Shah said. The association also is advocating for home tests to include a guide for users, to help them report their results to state health departments. Currently, those results do not automatically go to public health authorities.
Dr. Kelly Wroblewski, Infectious Disease Director with the Association of Public Health Laboratories, said it’s also important to diversify the supply chain of tests.
“Meaning adding more different manufacturers beyond BinaxNOW,” she said. “I understand as far as when you’re talking about schools that have been trained and have staff trained and not wanting to retrain, I do think that’s an important point. But as far as individuals doing home testing, if we can have more manufacturers in the market, that’s the way to expand the supply.”
“And we’ve had to do that really early in 2020 with laboratory testing supply and diversify the lab tests that were being used. And that was really the way out of that challenge,” Wroblewski said. “And so I think that the same applies here with home-based tests.”