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[Pages S4895-S4896]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
COVID-19 TESTING DEVELOPMENT
Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, the second topic I wanted to talk about is
that we spend lots of time discussing what to do in this next phase of
dealing with the coronavirus legislation. I want to talk about
something we did earlier and the results it has produced.
In April, Senator Alexander and I proposed that the National
Institutes of Health create a ``Shark Tank'' program for scientists to
develop new technologies for COVID-19 testing. NIH set up that program
very quickly. We gave them the authority and money to do it, but they
did in a week what they normally would have done in 6 months. They have
been working overtime ever since with the private sector and with
BARDA, or the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority,
to meet the tremendous need for quicker and earlier tests.
The Presiding Officer and I talked about this just the other day. The
President is right in his view that some of these tests only tell us
information that gives us more data. We need tests that are quicker and
have an immediate response. When you go get a test and you don't have a
response for 5 days, that really doesn't do anybody a whole lot of
good. You have been moving around for 5 days, maybe without symptoms,
and you don't know that you are continuing to spread the virus. If you
had known in 5 minutes or 15 minutes what it took you 5 days to find
out, how many less people would have gotten the disease if you had
known what you needed to know when you needed to know it?
We need tests that give accurate results in minutes, that are easy to
take, and are inexpensive--tests that may cost from a $1 to $5 or $6,
that give you an immediate response. So that is what we asked of this
program at the National Institutes of Health to work on, to put
together scientists, researchers, and engineers to come up with their
boldest ideas.
So far, since April 29, 650 applications have been submitted with
ideas from single individuals or businesses who say: I think this would
work. That would be sort of the starting point. By the way, a lot more
than 650 people had ``this will work'' ideas, but when NIH sat down and
looked, they came up with 650 applicants they thought needed a careful
look.
Thirty-one of those projects have gone into phase 1 testing. They go
through a process of validation, seeing if the likelihood that this
will work is as great as what the scientists, engineers, and
technologists who populate the shark tank thought it would be.
NIH announced that 20 of those projects would be considered even more
closely over a few weeks in phase 2, and just last week, NIH selected 7
companies that would start scaling up production of their technology.
Taxpayers are investing about $250 million to help those tests get out
there quickly. These tests could be available as early
[[Page S4896]]
as next month. Some of them are the type of rapid tests that give a
result on site.
One test uses a handheld device that can detect the virus within 30
minutes. Another test company has developed a way to speed up lab
testing so that labs that now handle hundreds of tests can handle tens
of thousands in the same period of time. These kinds of technologies
and others are essential if we want to get our society fully reopened.
In early April, there was an average of 145,000 tests a day. Today,
we are running about 800,000 tests, but often they are not the kind of
tests we need, and they are not the numbers we need. We need tests that
millions of people can take dozens of times. We need tests for every
person who walks into an office or a factory or a nursing home or a
school or a childcare center so that there is confidence in knowing
they are not bringing the virus into that center. It is a high hurdle,
but I think it is one that we are going to clear.
The HEALS Act includes another $15 billion for testing to help in our
priorities, which are nursing homes and daycare centers, childcare
centers, elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities.
Those are areas where we think the government itself has an
extraordinary obligation to make the difference. That $16 billion,
added to the $9 billion of money for this purpose that hasn't been
spent up until now, means that we have that kind of big investment to
see that people have tests that work for them and work quickly.
For this to happen, Congress has to act. Congress has to move. We
have to be supportive of efforts that get our society back to school,
back to work, back to childcare, and back to better health.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
____________________
