“We know that asymptomatic transmission is what’s driving this pandemic, and we know that we cannot rein in Covid-19 unless we have widespread accessible testing,” said Dr. Leana Wen, a former assistant health commissioner for Baltimore. “We should be encouraging far more people to get tested and not less,” she said. “Their previous guidance on this made no sense.”After the initial pushback from the scientific community, the director of the C.D.C., Dr. Robert Redfield, sought last month to clarify the agency’s position, saying testing “may be considered” for people without symptoms. The new recommendation was a “detailed follow-up to Dr. Redfield’s testing guidance clarification statement on August 27,” the agency said in a statement on Friday. Dr. Thomas Frieden, who served as the agency’s director under President Obama, said the new testing recommendation was “an encouraging step in the right direction and confirms the importance of testing close contacts of people with Covid.”“Now,” he added, “the administration needs to show that political interference with C.D.C.

Source: New York Times September 18, 2020 21:00 UTC