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(Video: Fox News)

As the nation runs critically short of Covid-19 tests, a former Donald Trump official has weighed in, wondering if that’s really such a bad thing.

The ongoing difficulties being experienced by the administration of Joe Biden to secure Covid-19 testing kits due to failures to secure the key contracts, despite the money being set aside and authorized by Congress, have led to plenty of criticism.

One voice who doesn’t appear to be taking the time to castigate the president may be surprising, however: former Secretary of Housing and Human Development, Dr. Ben Carson.

Carson spoke to Fox News on Monday to comment on the shortages by stating, “maybe that’s not a bad thing.”

When host Martha MacCallum asked “People are waiting for tests. Do you think those tests are gonna arrive in time to serve that need?” Carson was nonchalant and pointed out that there was a bigger problem regarding what to actually do with all those potential positive testers.

“Well, it’s quite clear the tests are not gonna arrive in time. Maybe that’s not a bad thing because, you know, the more tests you have, the more positive people you’re gonna have. And if you don’t have a good plan for what you’re gonna do with those positive people, it adds more to the confusion,” the retired neurosurgeon noted.

Carson, overall, didn’t appear too worried about Covid-19, particularly in its latest incarnation, the “Omicron” variant, saying it was getting “weaker and more contagious,” therefore it would be a constant and widespread presence, though with less serious consequences. Carson also pointed out that, at some point, people will just have to accept that Covid-19 is here to stay and focus on dealing with it as best we can.

“What are we going to do about that? Are we going to be afraid of it? Are we going to hunker down and hide from it? Or are we gonna use the knowledge that we have in order to be able to live effectively with it? You know, we have some very effective therapeutics. We need to be concentrating on early therapy and making it available for people,” he contended.

Yet MacCallum insisted on talking about the testing kits: “I just wanna go back and ask you. So are you suggesting that people shouldn’t test and they shouldn’t–it doesn’t matter if they know they’re positive or not by the first comment you made there?”

To which Carson explained himself in greater detail:

“Well, I’m saying that we need to be more measured in who we’re testing. To just go out widely and test everybody when you have something that is spreading this fast and you don’t have a plan to deal with it, all you’re doing is adding to the confusion,” he explained.

“Yes, certainly people who are at risk – those are the people we should be saving the tests for. And people who have to interface with a lot of people who perhaps have high risk – those are people who should be tested. Let’s not be just indiscriminately testing people and then throwing up our hands when we have so many people who are positive and not knowing what to do with them,” Carson said as MacCallum seemed to agree.

Regardless of whether or not Carson has the right idea, the situation regarding a shortage of testing kits and other supplies because of administrative issues, rather than a lack of Congressionally approved funds, seems likely to continue, at least for the short term.

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Joshua Nybo

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