“Early on in this crisis, the CDC, which really had the most trusted brand around the world in this space — really let the country down with the testing. Not only did they keep the testing within the bureaucracy they had a bad test and that set us back,” Navarro said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
A spokesman for the CDC declined to comment when reached by CNN.
Contamination in manufacturing the CDC test for the coronavirus caused weeks of delays that slowed the US response to the pandemic, multiple health officials told CNN last month. The problem stemmed in part from the CDC not adhering to its own protocols, according to a US Food and Drug Administration spokesperson.
The government has never fully explained what stalled the roll out of a crucial test needed to begin measuring the extent of the spread of Covid-19. It would take until the end of February to correct.
“The CDC had an issue as they scaled up manufacturing of tests to get them out to about 90 public health labs,” Azar said.
“There was apparently a contamination at an end stage there on the third part of the reagent that never led to false negatives or false positives, but that prevented some of the scale up for a couple of weeks,” Azar said, appearing to confirm earlier CNN reporting pointing to the contamination.
But Azar said “that was never going to be the backbone of testing — broad, mass testing in the United States.” Private companies, not the CDC, would be responsible for that scale-up, he said.
“I don’t believe the CDC let this country down,” Azar later added when asked about Navarro’s comments. “I believe the CDC serves an important public health role, and what was always critical was to get the private sector to the table.”
Birx has expressed her agitation during recent task force meetings, where at least one conversation between her and CDC Director Robert Redfield has grown heated, according to a source close to the task force.
This story has been updated to include statements from Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.
CNN’s Sara Murray and Nick Valencia contributed to this story.
