In a letter to Vice President Mike Pence, organizations representing laboratory professionals from regional, community, academic, hospital, and public health laboratories asked the White House Coronavirus Task Force to address several ongoing obstacles they face in performing diagnostic and serology tests for covid-19: Our members are on the front lines responding to the public health crisis. Since our members were first able to start testing for COVID-19 they have experienced significant difficulty acquiring the supplies—test kits, nasopharyngeal and mid-turbinate swabs, transport media, and personal protective equipment (PPE)—needed to perform COVID-19 testing. Without proper testing supplies and PPE, our members continue to struggle to meet the demand for COVID-19 testing and help track its spread across our communities. At times, our members have even received faulty or unusable equipment, including swabs from the Strategic National Stockpile, which has further impeded our work to combat this pandemic. As the virus surges, states and localities need to increase their testing capacity. With sufficient testing supplies, our members would be able to increase testing capacity and conduct more COVID-19 tests—a goal we know is shared by the Task Force. We respectfully request the following assistance:

  • A list of the name and contact information for individuals in each state who are overseeing the supply chain for testing supplies and PPE.
  • Visibility into the process of supply allocation, demonstrating that the supplies being distributed at the state level are being allocated in a way that reflects the greatest need to effectively address COVID-19 in the US.

The letter was signed by the American Association of Bioanalysts, the American Association for Clinical Chemistry, American Medical Technologists, the American Society for Microbiology, the Association of Public Health Laboratories, the Association for Molecular Pathology, the College of American Pathologists, and the National Independent Laboratory Association. Read the complete letter here.