down lines because of the lack of purchases for at home tests? one of the things we did in the fall was the $3 billion investment that we made was to turn lines on and commit to those lines for 13 months so they wouldn t be turned off again. dr. woodcock, last question. of the 15 tests that you ve currently approved for over the counter, how many detect omicron? we re still working on that, but we believe all of them detect omicron. we believe they are somewhat less sensitive than the previous variants. of the 50 million test that is the asper has contracted for, how many of those tests detect omicron? i don t know which tests there are. we can get back to you on that. you haven t consulted with what we re purchasing on the 500 million, they haven t consulted
it s impacting society in such a large way but it s unavoidable for, as she says, most americans? well, i didn t think dr. woodcock s comments were particularly helpful. a, i haven t seen the evidence that she seems to be citing here. i haven t seen evidence that most people are going to get it. that s an empirical statement which has to have evidence behind it. and second, the thing that she said about it is that we have to keep our systems functioning in that context, but the way to keep systems functioning is to make sure that even if you believe that everyone is going to get covid, that it doesn t happen all at the same time, which means that people have to do things to protect themselves and one another, whether that is making sure that they are wearing their masks, getting vaccinated, using rapid tests, but if you tell people that they re just going to get it anyway, then you ve killed the incentive that people have to protect themselves, to slow the spread and make sure they d
to sow some conspiracy theory so he can gain power or raise money. it is so cynical. and the thing that makes your blood boil about it all is the fact that rand paul is actually a trained physician. he understands the science. so you have to imagine the kind of cynicism that he has going on in his mind when he tries to blame someone who s on the right side of trying to save lives in this pandemic. for the pandemic itself. it is really, truly disgusting, and it epitomizes this moment of our political polarization where everything is fair game. nothing is off limits. and you see the consequences in dr. fauci s voice. i mean, this is a man saying, please stop bothering my family over the work that i m trying to do to save our lives. let s turn to what we heard, i think, for a lot of people the first time from the acting fda commissioner, dr. woodcock that says that most people are going to get covid. continue to wear the mask and social distance and quarantine when necessary, but most p
people. pathway which the biden administration has ignored, from a scientific perspective this is deplorable.. they have ignored immunity and quite frankly does the gold standard for every other viral infection we deal with, to check for antibodies. we ve known about this. i have communicated directly with doctors and multiple companies, dr. woodcock herself has acknowledged this. i think it is absolutely, it is a catastrophic failure in the scientific intelligence for us not to focus efficiently on immunity.ge these are quite simple tests. we have the defense production act plugged into these screening tests, which i think are important, obviously. you want to know if you re positive but the key is, the president of the united states wants to bring peace of mind everyday americans, we should have been focusing on checking immunity levels. this is not something that is out of this world. i repeated this with tucker and will repeat it with you. we put a rover on mars. we are technologic
at-home tests? one of the things we did in the fall was $3 billion investment we made was to turn lines on and to commit to those lines for 13 months. so they wouldn t be turned off again. dr. woodcock, last question, chair. of the 15 tests that you ve currently approved for over the counter, how many detect omicron? we re still working on that but we believe all detect omicron. we simply feel they are somewhat less sensitive than they were to some of the previous variants. of the 50 million tests the as per has contracted for, how many of those tests detect omicron? i don t know which tests there are. we can get back to you on that. you haven t consulted with what we re purchased in the 500 million. they haven t consulted to figure out the tests they re buying detect omicron.