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by Michael Mandel, Chief Economic Strategist
We’re used to thinking of COVID-19 testing as an activity that is led by government public health agencies, supported by private testing laboratories such as Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp.
But American businesses have a broader role to play. Workplace-based testing for COVID-19 infections is shaping up to be a crucial component of managing the virus and getting the economy restarted again.
In mid-April Scott Gottlieb, former head of the FDA, wrote a op-ed for the Wall Street Journal where he argued that:
"As employees return to work, perhaps as early as May, employers can offer screening at their place of business. Rapid diagnosis and containment will be a critical part of limiting spread."
Government policy can encourage employer-based testing in two ways. First, without cutting corners, federal and state regulatory agencies should be open to approving employer-based testing laboratories that will add significantly more national testing capacity. Second, the U.S. should consider subsidizing sick leave for workers that test positive, in order to encourage more companies to do testing.
Oddly enough, the CDC is still treating testing as a scarce resource, as it has since the beginning of the pandemic, and actively discouraging employer use of tests. The current CDC guidelines for employers suggest checking workers for virus symptoms or elevated temperatures, but goes on say: “[e]mployers should not require a COVID-19 test result ….to return to work.”
But to be polite, that attitude from the CDC misses the point. President Donald Trump has explicitly made testing the responsibility of state governments, in conjunction with the leading private labs, and they simply don’t have the resources to carry the whole load. It’s time to harness the financial heft of the business sector to pick up some of the testing burden.
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