The federal government claims it can dramatically ramp up testing to some 50 million per month
Even as President Donald Trump has downplayed the role testing will play in reopening America, several lawmakers said they want widespread access.
Giroir, the HHS official who took a lead on testing, said by September, the U.S. will be capable of performing between 40 million to 50 million tests per month.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/brett-giroir-rt-jef-200512_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
via Reuters
PHOTO: Assistant Health and Human Services Secretary for Health Admiral Brett Giroir testifies remotely during a Senate Committee for Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions hearing on the coronavirus disease in Washington.
He wouldn’t say though if that scale would be enough to reopen schools, saying that would depend upon a community’s situation. And Redfield and other officials said they weren’t prepared to offer more specific guidance than what the federal government has already offered.
“We know that the testing needs will go up over May and June as we progressively open, and we will do our best to predict” the amount of tests needed, Giroir told senators.
Overall, Giroir said, the goal is making “as many tests available” to states if they want them.
Still, classes this fall are not a guarantee
Nearly every lawmaker wanted to know about schools. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the panel’s chairman, asked when his state college students might feel comfortable returning to classrooms, while the committee’s top Democrat, Patty Murray of Washington, wondered how kids could pile on to school buses and eat in cafeterias.
Wouldn’t widespread testing help reopen the nation’s college campuses and schools?
Sen. Alexander said scaling up to 50 million tests per month should give every principal and college chancellor \"some reassurance.\"
But one issue with testing that health officials have noted is that a person can carry the virus without exhibiting symptoms, and testing only determines whether a person poses a risk at that particular point in time.
At one point, Fauci noted that a vaccine won't likely be ready by fall and that effective treatments remain elusive. But he later clarified that cases in a region and its ability to handle an outbreak -- not the availability of a vaccine -- is a bigger factor in determining whether a school should reopen.
\"It would depend on the dynamics of the outbreak in the region where the school is,\" he said.
Fauci defends Obama, and Trump
Utah GOP Sen. Mitt Romney, who voted in favor of impeaching the president earlier this year, sought to get Fauci on the record about whether former President Barack Obama was to blame for the lack of a vaccine.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/mitt-romney-rt-jef-200512_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
via Reuters
PHOTO: Senator Mitt Romney questions Dr. Anthony Fauci and other witnesses during a Senate Committee for Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions hearing on the coronavirus disease in Washington.
Trump has repeatedly blamed Obama for problems with the national stockpile and insisted he inherited his predecessor’s mess, despite spending three years in office before the pandemic hit.
\"No, senator. Not at all. Certainly President Obama nor President Trump are responsible for our not having a vaccine,” Fauci replied.
Fauci also denied having a confrontational relationship with the president and said he provides Trump his best advice based on science.
“He hears that. He respects it,” Fauci said.
“He gets opinions from a variety of other people. But in no way, in my experience over the last several months, has there been any confrontational relationship between us,” he added.
What to know about coronavirus:
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