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In an opinion column for The New York Times, Harold Varmus,
former director of the National Institutes of Health, and Rajiv Shah, president
of the Rockefeller Foundation, blast the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention for changing its coronavirus testing guidelines, which now say that
asymptomatic persons no longer need to be tested.
“These changes by the CDC will undermine efforts to end the
pandemic, slow the return to normal economic, educational and social
activities, and increase the loss of lives,” Varmus and Shah write.
To bypass what the CDC has done, the pair suggest that state
and local leaders ignore the CDC and act independently to make their own
testing guidelines and coronavirus protocols. They also urge insurance
companies and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to “provide
reasonable reimbursement” to pay for tests of asymptomatic populations.
SOURCE: The
New York Times August 31, 2020