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New York Governor Heads to Washington to Seek COVID-19 Testing Assistance

Margaret Besheer

   NEW YORK - New York'sgovernor is heading to Washington Tuesday, where
   he said he will "tell the truth" to President Donald Trump about the
   need for the federal government to help states carry out large-scale
   coronavirus testing.

   "You tell the truth," Gov.Andrew Cuomo said about how he will approach
   the president, with whom he has sometimes had a difficult relationship.
   "I said that to the president fromDayOne. And by the way, he has done
   the same vis-Ã -vis me. He has no problem telling me when he disagrees,
   and he tells me when he agrees."'¯

   Cuomo wants Washington to step up and assistU.S.states with both
   diagnostic testing--to know if an individual has COVID-19, the disease
   caused by the coronavirus--and to do antibody testing to learn whether
   a person has some immunity to the virus.

   Specifically, the governor wants help procuring the pieces to the test
   kits--nasal swabs, test tubes, chemical reagents and solutions. These
   are needed in vast quantities to make large-scale testing possible, and
   Cuomo has said it is too big a job for individual states to handle.

   He has also repeatedly complained that the purchasing process pits
   individual states against each other in shopping and bidding wars,
   especially when purchasing overseas.

   "I think the federal government has to take that national
   manufacturers' supply chain issue," he said, of the domestic firms that
   cannot meet demand. "You shouldn't expect all these governors to go run
   around and do an international supply chain while they are trying to
   put together their testing protocol, in their state."'¯

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