What’s False

The U.S. did not turn down an offer to use those tests (as no such offer was extended), nor was it unusual for the United States to design and produce its own diagnostic tests in lieu of those made elsewhere.

[DR. SANJAY] GUPTA: And, Dr. Fauci, I want to echo what Anderson said as well. Thank you very much for your service. People may not know this, Dr. Fauci is 79 years old and, I mean, you have the energy I think many of us emulate. Let me ask one more question though about this testing. I know you’ve talked a lot about it, but I think, you know, Dr. Fauci, there was a test.

It was being distributed around the world. WHO was using this test, I believe it was created in Germany, in Berlin, and it was being used, and yet we did not use it in this country even as a stopgap measure, even as we prepared to make our own test. And as a result, we got behind. That’s a problem. And I’m just wondering, was that a mistake? Should we have used that test? Why didn’t we?

FAUCI: Well, you know, Sanjay, I’m not sure that it was a mistake. But certainly, you know, if you look back and Monday morning quarterback, it would have been nice to have had a backup. But what the CDC has done over many, many years when we have things like this is to develop their own test, which is always really a good test, and to roll it out in a way that we call a public health-directed, where they give it to departments of public health.

You have a physician-patient relationship. They come in. They order the test. They get the test. It was not designed for the kind of mass distribution that we need now that we’ve seen in other countries. That’s behind us. Looking forward, we’re going very much in that direction, Sanjay, very much so.

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