1/ Just to give you a sense of where we're at re availability of Coronavirus testing: I just asked an infectious disease team at UMMC, where my dad is, if they have ability to test yet. No. They've sent a few samples to CDC, are hoping that state labs will get tests soon.
2/ CDC/ Trump admin rejected the working WHO test, for reasons we still don't know. Made a test that didn't work and further had overly strict protocols of who would be tested, missing a lot of cases we now know about.
3/ Now there is a working test. And 75,000 kits of it. And yesterday CDC said it would speed distribution of those kits. But Azar said those tests are mostly two weeks away (!!!); some will be sped quicker to hot spots. nytimes.com/2020/02/29/hea… 
4/ In the meantime, here at this hospital, they're implementing more infection protocol, social distancing, thinking about who goes from clinic to other areas of hospital, should transplant patients be traveling, etc.
And "a lot of meetings."
And "a lot of meetings."
5/ Here as everywhere medical personal are busting their butts to deal with everything they usually have on their plates, a bad flu season, etc.
But CDC/Trump admin lost this country weeks of ability to locate and quarantine and we do not know what dictated those decisions.
But CDC/Trump admin lost this country weeks of ability to locate and quarantine and we do not know what dictated those decisions.
6/ Hospitals like this one—a large public, teaching hospital that treats Baltimore and via satellite facilities, all of Maryland—are on the front lines of any public health crisis.
No cases that they know of here yet, so I'm told. But places like this is where it'll hit hardest
No cases that they know of here yet, so I'm told. But places like this is where it'll hit hardest
7/ Hospitals are, obviously, full of already sick, old, and "medically fragile" people. My dad has acute myeloid leukemia—and atm has essentially no immune system. He's battling an unrelated infection. Here is both the place you most and least want to be.
8/ Anyway, wash your hands. Get your flu shot. Don't overtax the medical system unless you really need it.
And if there's a way to support medical staff on the front lines in your community, do that too.
And if there's a way to support medical staff on the front lines in your community, do that too.
9/ One more thing: It's been a blessing that kids seem way less susceptible to coronovirus than adults. But does that hold for kids on oncology wards and in NICUs or with asthma? I don't know that we have the data yet to know.
10/ The "here's how many cases there are" numbers are MEANINGLESS because we simply haven't been testing people, even those who seem to fit all the criteria, medically and otherwise.
11/ Everything that @chrislhayes says in this thread:
12/ @chrislhayes is drilling into this right now and it is worth your time
13/ every paragraph about the mysterious incompetence of CDC testing protocol is enraging nytimes.com/2020/03/02/hea…
14/ upshot: Because of arrogance and bungling (that’s the OPTIMISTIC analysis) the US has only tested hundreds of people while other countries are testing tens of thousands or, in China, millions.
Meanwhile in a country with no guaranteed sick leave, the virus spreads
Meanwhile in a country with no guaranteed sick leave, the virus spreads
15/ here is the maddening tale of someone who should be tested immediately
