Bill Gates: A majority of US COVID-19 tests are ‘completely garbage, wasted’ – CNET [CNET]

Bill Gates continued to criticize the state of COVID-19 tests in the US, calling it a “truly sad thing” at The Wall Street Journal CEO Summit on Tuesday. But he offered a glimmer of hope, noting that the antibody drugs used in President Donald Trump’s treatment could dramatically curb the death rate from COVID-19 once it’s approved by regulators and made available to the public. 

This isn’t the first time Gates has railed against US testing, which have tended to see slower turnarounds despite the huge volume of tests conducted. 

“The majority of all US tests are completely garbage, wasted,” he said in an August interview with Wired. 

He noted in the Wired interview that the reimbursement system set up by the federal government pays at the same level for all tests, which means companies providing them just administer as many as possible. But the government could fix this if they changed the system to pay extra for results in 24 hours, a normal fee for 48 hours and nothing if it goes longer. 

“They will fix it overnight,” he said. 

He also noted that COVID-19 tests don’t necessarily need to jam deep into the back of your nose, as they commonly did in the early days of tests. He said that a self-test that just touches the top of your nose with a cotton swab is just as effective. 

At the WSJ CEO Council Summit, Gates expressed optimism for the drugs, developed by companies such as Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

“The reduction in death rate there could be pretty high, and those will be out in volume by the end of the year, at least in the rich countries.”

Gates also reiterated his prediction that the pandemic and its effects will largely end for the developed nation by the end of 2021, with the rest of world seeing an effective vaccine by the end of 2022.