“Dr. Redfield,” she said, “you don’t need to do any work to ‘operationalize.’ You need to make a commitment to the American people so they come in to get tested. You can operationalize the payment structure tomorrow.”

And with that, the doctor waved a white flag.

“I think you’re an excellent questioner,” he said, “so my answer is yes.”

“Excellent,” Porter responded. “Everybody in America hear that? You are eligible to go get tested for coronavirus and have that covered regardless of insurance.”

Rep. Katie Porter grilled the head of the Centers for Disease Control until he agreed to provide free Coronavirus testing for all Americans. This shit happened yesterday and the first time I’m seeing it appear anywhere in the mainstream news is this morning. Instead, I had to read about how they shut down pro basketball and that Tom Hanks has the virus. Of course, there’s no word on how that free testing will actually happen; Trump disbanded the NSC’s global health security team two years ago, and the CDC has been pretty fucking useless to this point.

Mainstream news is still our only check against an increasingly amoral and unequal government, but they are blowing it. And while our elected representatives have our best interests in mind for roughly 3% of their day, it’s somewhat heartwarming to know there are still a few out there fighting for us.