Briahna Joy Gray discusses US's handling of COVID-19 testing

The former national press secretary for Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I-Vt.) presidential campaign on Wednesday criticized the U.S.'s failure to simplify COVID-19 testing.

"The problem here isn't the idea of big government," Briahna Joy Gray, who now hosts the Bad Faith Podcast, said on Hill TV's "Rising." "It's the idea that our government is so overly invested in the idea of health insurance subsidies and the idea of private-public partnerships that it is not able to do what government is able to do best, which is lower the cost of products like this and distribute them directly to Americans."

"That's what's being done in the other countries, and that's what was being demanded or offered up by the reporter as an alternative to the complicated, byzantine, jump-on-one-foot while reciting the pledge of allegiance approach that's being taken currently," she added.

Gray's comments referenced White House press secretary Jen Psaki's remarks to a reporter who asked why the U.S. does not just make COVID-19 tests free and have them available everywhere.

"Should we just send one to every American?" Psaki asked at the briefing. "Then what happens if every American has one test? How much does that cost and then what happens after that?"

As the pandemic continues, concerns about the omicron variant have heightened recently both in the U.S. and internationally.

On Wednesday, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called upon countries to remain vigilant in combating COVID-19, adding that "complacency now will cost lives."