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Trump Quickly Ended Presser Right After Dr. Birx Said the Quiet Part Out Loud: ‘Profitability of Tests’

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As is often the case covering the Trump administration, one has to “read-in” a lot of cover “code” in the answers provided by even the people around Trump. Viewers are becoming increasingly wary of answers provided by Dr. Birx, who you note – unlike Dr. Fauci – has managed to artfully avoid any friction between herself and Trump. She is better at answering questions with answers Trump likes, rather than the more straightforward truths that Fauci delivers.

Yesterday’s briefing was called to a close rather abruptly. For those of us who cover these, it felt a little odd at the time, because one is generally looking at the clock, and dreading the next 30 to 45 minutes. Yet Trump ended the matter in one hour and fifteen minutes. At the time, I thought Trump didn’t want a bunch of questions into what is clearly a far too “generalized” plan. But now I think I have the real answer, and very few others do.

But to appreciate the importance, it is critical to note two things from yesterday’s presser:

First, the “Phase I” plan involves a comprehensive testing plan for all healthcare workers and hospitalized patients. Keep in mind that Trump guestimated there to be in the upper 20s as the number of states ready for “Phase I.” But no state currently has a comprehensive testing program or even ability, yet.

Two, Trump ended the briefing the moment after Dr. Birx talked about the complexities of the test and noted that “at $50 a test, it wasn’t worth hiring an extra technician to do the extra tests, but at $100 a test, it is …

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Trump allowed her to finish her answer, then took to the podium and spoke for another minute (I can’t get a YouTube video clip of that minute because the sounds cut out of the ones that I have seen), and, again, ended the briefing.

It sounds for all the world like the entire United States “testing problem” is that they haven’t been able to make the tests profitable for the right people, yet. Right now, tests require the type of equipment and experience found only at universities and already established labs, and only with hiring extra people. It is not profitable yet to make a stand-alone test, of the type that your urgent care clinic has for the flu.

Rather than infuse a shitload of government money to pay the universities and pre-existing labs, they’re letting it trickle away until they come up with a “profitable test.” That is the interpretation that sounds most consistent with her gibberish answer.

Many people on the net agree.

The YouTube connection here:

Yes, but they weren’t offered, though the U.S. could’ve asked.

More, this should be kept in mind, also:

Canadian’s view:

So to sum things up, at this point, the technology is there to run tests, but they are very sophisticated and involve using equipment found only at universities and already established labs. No one yet has come up with a technology to put out a test that doesn’t require an already-running standardized lab.

The key seems to be the profitability of a stand-alone test, of the type at your local urgent care for the flu. The government will not pay huge amounts to the universities and established labs – it appears – because someone wants that opportunity to make it themselves and They. Need. More. Time. – which is why this sounds ungodly slow compared to other countries, who are just paying the labs.

That is what it appears to me, and I wish I could say “I knew it!” but I really didn’t. Even at this late stage in the game, I continue to be shocked at the greed infused into this administration.

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Peace, y’all

Jason

[email protected] and on Twitter @MiciakZoom

 

 

Jason Miciak
meet the author

Jason Miciak is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is originally from Canada but grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He now enjoys life as a single dad raising a ridiculously-loved young girl on the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He is very much the dreamy mystic, a day without learning is a day not lived. He is passionate about his flower pots and studies philosophical science, religion, and non-mathematical principles of theoretical physics. Dogs, pizza, and love are proof that God exists. "Above all else, love one another."

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