‘On the front line’ with no tests: To reopen country, primary care doctors need testing access
April 17, 2020 / By Erika Edwards
Whether the Trump administration’s guidance to reopen portions of the country is successful hinges on diagnostic testing: people need to know whether they’re healthy enough to get back to work, or sick with COVID-19 and need continued isolation.
It’s a necessity Vice President Mike Pence acknowledged during a coronavirus task force briefing Thursday at the White House.
“Our administration will continue to work day in and day out,” he said, “to ensure that our states have not only the medical supplies, but that we continue to rapidly expand testing across the nation.”
But primary care doctors across the country say they have nowhere near the level of testing supplies needed to meet what is sure to be increased demand for coronavirus testing.
“We’re here on the front line of this doggone thing,” Dr. Gary LeRoy, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, told NBC News. Patients naturally turn to their primary care doctors first when they are ill, making it critical those practices have access to testing kits.
