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SALT LAKE CITY — Sen. Mitt Romney questioned Thursday whether mass testing of Americans for COVID-19 is necessary given the high number of people with positive results who are asymptomatic.
The Utah Republican said he’s “puzzled” by conflicting data on the amount of people in Massachusetts and New York found to be asymptomatic as well as tests in five prisons in Southern states where 93% didn’t have any symptoms. Sweden, he said, is not testing everyone and is keeping the economy moving.
“If that’s the case, should we let this run its course through the population and not try and test every person?” he asked the head of the National Institutes of Health during a Senate hearing. ”I say that as a bit of a straw man, but I’m interested in your perspective.”
NIH Director Francis Collins said he appreciated that Romney posed the question as a straw man because while it’s true that a lot of people get the virus without any symptoms at all, an estimated 60% of new cases are transmitted by such people and 74,000 people have died from the disease.
“I think it is extremely unusual to have a virus like this that is so capable of infecting people without symptoms but having them then spread it on,” Collins said.
“The only way we’re really going to put a stop to that is to know who the people who are infected, even if they have no symptoms, get them quarantined, follow their contacts,” he said. “It’s just good, solid shoe-leather public health.”
Collins told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that the U.S. plans to make tens of millions of “accurate and easy-to-use” coronavirus tests by the end of the summer and in time for the flu season.
“I must tell you, senators, that this is a stretch goal that goes well beyond what most experts think will be possible,” he said. “I have encountered some stunned expressions when describing these goals and this timetable to knowledgeable individuals. The scientific and logistical challenges are truly daunting.”
Using $1.5 billion in coronavirus relief funds, the NIH launched a “Shark Tank” program last week to engage scientists across the country from the “basement to the boardroom” to improve current tests and advance new technologies. It has already received more than 1,000 applications.
“The game is on, and it’s going to be a wild ride,” Collins said.
Romney, who expressed frustration over the nation’s lag in testing in early March, appeared to favor improving current testing machines over developing new technology. He pointed to the Abbott ID Now COVID-19 test that he said produces results in “almost a real-time basis.” He wondered if it is inadequate or produces too many false negatives.
“What’s wrong with making a lot of those?” Romney said. “It strikes me that we already have a technology that works. Am I wrong on that?”
Collins said there are only 18,000 in use and that number would have to go up “substantially and the machines are not exactly inexpensive.” Also, the test has a 15% false negative rate, he said.
“If you’re in a circumstance where you really, really don’t want to miss a diagnosis of somebody who is already carrying the virus, you’d like to have something that has a higher sensitivity than that,” he said. “It’s certainly one of the most exciting things we’ve got right now, but we think we can even do better.”
Romney, who appeared at the hearing via video from his office, said given the fact there is a test that works, it could be made more sensitive. If the production of the machines could be accelerated, the need for testing could be filled with existing technology.
Romney also asked Gary Disbrow, the acting director of the Department of Health’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, the probability of a COVID-19 vaccine being available by the end of the year.
Disbrow said he’s not a betting person, but if you don’t set lofty goals you won’t achieve them.
“I’m not asking for goals. I’m asking for the probability,” Romney said. “Is it 50-50, 90-10, 60-40?”
Disbrow replied that he doesn’t like to set timelines.
“OK, OK,” Romney said. “Never mind, never mind if you don’t want to answer the question, we’ll move on.”
