From the President’s Desk: ‘The end of the beginning’

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April 2021—“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

I thought of this Winston Churchill quote when I, along with many others, received my first COVID-19 vaccine in December. Unfortunately, this country would go on to experience a second peak. My counterparts in other countries remind me of their third peak. Still, we are well along in the end of the beginning.

Dr. Godbey

By the time this column reaches you in mid-April, COVID-19 metrics will have changed, and I believe will be better. This is being written in early March and positive indicators are abundant. Testing availability has increased substantially. In the U.S., reported new daily infections have fallen significantly from their peak in January, while more than 10 percent of the public is now fully vaccinated against the virus. President Biden just announced that by May 1 he expects that all American adults will be eligible to receive the vaccine.

“Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.”

Churchill aimed that comment at the U.S. Congress and the public in 1941, before our country entered World War II. I have personally, without shame, used this when talking with the FDA, the Department of Health and Human Services, and members of Congress as well as their staffs. In the pandemic, this has been our plea from the start: Give us the tools—consumables, reagents, platforms—and we will give you the answers. Those answers will be reliable, accurate, and timely enough to maximally benefit our patients.

While supplies are less scarce than they were last year, we are still not where we want to be. In a CAP survey of members conducted in February, we found that 45 percent of labs were still struggling to get adequate reagents and 30 percent were struggling to get enough consumables. A full year into the pandemic, we have yet to meet the goal of making enough accurate, local testing available for all who need it.

The new American Rescue Plan, which was just signed into law, includes funding for exactly that. Nearly $50 billion has been set aside for diagnosing and tracing SARS-CoV-2 infections and for purchasing and distributing test supplies. This support is desperately needed and will be much appreciated by our members across this country. I am anxiously awaiting the funds.