with this story. tell us what this means, leyla. reporter: all right. brianna, here is how he is explaining high value versus low value testing. he s saying, this is about prioritizing. the example he used is it is of more value to test, say, a grandmother than an 8-year-old, a third grader that is getting weekly testing. so he wants to put out more guidance that emphasizing that. and then after he explained that in a press conference yesterday, he says he also wants to unwind testing psychology coming from the federal government. listen. we re going to be working to unwind the sort of testing psychology that our federal leadership has managed to, unfortunately, get most of the country in over the last two years. we need to unwind this testing sort of planning and living
purposes, such as diagnosing an infection. when should people get tested in your mind? yeah, thanks for having me. i want to say off the bat these are my personal opinions. they don t represent any of the hospitals or employers i m affiliated with. it s a really hard decision to make because testing has been pushed appropriately throughout the pandemic for pretty much everyone. you know, asymptomatic people can transmit the virus, symptomatic people. so we ve been told, you know, test, test, test, as many as possible, with very good intentions. you know, despite the fact we have an enormous number of tests in this country, it is still not enough. there have been, you know, systematic mistakes that limited our supply somewhat. but the omicron surge was enormous. i mean, absolutely enoenormous. it is overwhelming testing systems throughout the world. while we could have had more tests, we d probably be facing some limitation in almost any scenario with, unfortunately, the omicron virus
pounds, 6 ounces. reporter: she has not seen yet? she has not seen. she was covid negative, praise jesus. reporter: hallie was move sh amarillo to houston, still unaware her three-week-old daughter is 900 miles away in an amarillo newborn intensive care u unit. what will you tell her when you can speak to her? i don t even want to think about it. that s my little girl. being away from her little girl. my heart bleeds for her. reporter: the omicron variant now ripping through the lone star state. texas children s preparing for even more sick kids, as covid-19 cases skyrocket. what is your sense for what the next few weeks are going to hold? you know, i think the bar for resilience just keeps moving. you think that, i don t know how we could do this again, and then we keep doing it again. reporter: as texas children s
deficiencies and don t respond well even if they re vaccinated. caregivers around them, friends, family, to try to keep the virus out of their immediate vicinity. so those people, you know, should probably be doing a lot of testing if they re able to. instead, what we have are, you know, a lot of lower-risk people testing right now. we have, you know, people who are vaccinated and younger and more access to resources, because testing isn t cheap right now. and so they end up consuming a lot of tests, both personally and through universities, through corporations, through these other systems that consume a lot of testing. you know, it seems a little like a proposal for triage. i wonder what you think about that, especially at a time when, you know, a lot of americans wanted i know we re not past it, but psychologically, they wanted to be past this and getting back to normal, even in the middle of winter. what do you say to that, that
conference in several weeks, they didn t really talk about pumping more resources into what you re seeing behind me, testing. lines are hours and hours long for people to get. there really is a strong demand right now. from the federal government s perspective, we did check in with them, and they are saying that florida should have ample supply when it comes to that, and that there should also be a lot of focus on prevention and testing. it s quite the shift. leyla, thank you for the report. let s stay on this issue of testing. in this new piece for the atlantic, one doctor says more testing is not the answer. he argues that with a surge in cases, tests should be reserved for those who need it most. joining us now, the author of the piece, a clinical fellow in pathologist at yale new haven hospital. thank you for being with us. you also write, testing is, for now, a zero sum game. each unnecessary swab you consume means one fewer is available for more important