美国总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)周四表示,在美国,“永远不会发生”一项广泛的COVID-19测试计划,该计划旨在评估工人能否安全返回工作场所。
特朗普在白宫冠状病毒特别工作组(White House Coronavirus Task Force)的每日新闻发布会上向记者发表讲话时,吹嘘说200万美国人已经接受了病毒检测,这是美国抗击由非典-Cov-2引发的全球大流行的一个“里程碑”。
特朗普政府拒绝了世界卫生组织开发的一项测试,导致在获取和管理测试方面出现了数周的问题,迄今已实施的200万项测试标志着一个高水位线。然而,这个数字意味着在3.3亿美国人口中,只有0.61%的人接受过COVID-19测试。
与其他许多实施了测试项目的国家相比,这个数字微不足道。例如,意大利对大约1.4%的人口进行了检测,韩国通过广泛的检测使其感染曲线变平,现已达到人口的0.9%。
大多数公共卫生专家都强调,美国需要大幅扩大其检测项目,既要通过目前可用的检测手段来确定某个人是否感染了非典病毒2型,也要通过所谓的“抗体检测”来确定一个人是否成功击退了病毒,从而对其免疫。
2020年4月9日,DC,美国总统唐纳德·特朗普在白宫布雷迪新闻发布室观看每日冠状病毒简报时发表讲话。在过去三周的COVID-19大流行中,美国的失业人数已经接近1700万。
专家说,这两种测试的实施量必须比目前大得多,这样才能让美国人重返工作岗位而不用担心感染,尽管特朗普一再表示,美国可能会在几周内开始摆脱社会隔离措施。
但当被问及他的政府如何能在没有适当测试计划的情况下讨论“重启”美国经济时,特朗普声称这样的计划不仅没有必要,而且根本不在考虑之列。
“你需要它吗?不,这样做好吗?是的,”特朗普说。
“我们谈论的是3.25亿人,这是不可能发生的,”他接着说,后来又补充说,如此高的测试率“也不会发生在其他任何人身上”,并声称已经实施这种项目的国家“以有限的形式”进行测试,美国将很快成为测试领域的“领头羊”。
更正(2020年4月9日,晚上11:00):这篇文章被更新以纠正被测试者百分比中的数学错误。
TRUMP SAYS WIDESPREAD CORONAVIRUS TESTING 'WOULD NEVER HAPPEN' AND ISN'T NEEDED TO REOPEN COUNTRY
President Donald Trump on Thursday said a widespread COVID-19 testing program to assess whether workers can safely return to their workplaces is "never going to happen" in the United States.
As he addressed reporters during the daily White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing, Trump touted the fact that 2 million Americans had been tested for the virus as a "milestone" in the U.S. fight against the global pandemic caused by SARS-Cov-2.
The 2 million tests that have been administered so far represents a high water mark after weeks of problems in obtaining and administering tests caused by the Trump administration's rejection of a test developed by the World Health Organization. However, that number means only .61 percent of the 330 million U.S. population has been tested for COVID-19.
That's a paltry number compared to many other countries which have implemented testing programs. Italy, for example, has administered tests to approximately 1.4 percent of its population, and South Korea, which flattened its infection curve with widespread testing, has reached .9 percent of its population.
Most public health experts have stressed the need for the U.S. to significantly expand its testing program, both with currently available tests to determine whether a given person is infected with SARS-Cov-2, and with so-called "antibody tests" to determine whether a person has successfully fought off the virus and is therefore immune to it.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during the daily coronavirus briefing as Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia (R) looks on in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on April 09, 2020 in Washington, DC. U.S. unemployment claims have approached 17 million over the past three weeks amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Both varieties of test, experts say, must be administered in far greater quantities than currently being done in order to allow Americans to return to work without fear of infection, though Trump has repeatedly suggested that the U.S. could begin to emerge from social distancing measures within a few weeks.
But when asked how his administration could discuss "reopening" the U.S. economy without an adequate testing program in place, Trump claimed that such a program was not just unnecessary, but was something that was simply not in the cards.
"Do you need it? No. Is it a nice thing to do? Yes," Trump said.
"We're talking about 325 million people, and that's not going to happen," he continued, adding later that testing at such a high rate "would never happen with anyone else, either," and claiming that the countries that have implemented such programs "do it in a limited form" and that the U.S. would soon be "the leader of the pack" on testing.
Correction (4/9/2020, 11:00 p.m.): This article was updated to correct mathematical errors in the percentages of those tested.