THREAD: Getting reagents to labs to test specimens is one part of challenge. That's the 1.5M "tests" discussed in article. Means there will be enough reagents sent to public health and some academic labs to test up to 1.5 million specimens. Great news 1/n politico.com/news/2020/03/0…
The other part of the challenge is getting more labs operating the #coronavirus test. If your only lab can prep and test 100 samples a day, your "throughout" is only 50 patients that can be tested a day (2 samples per patient). More reagents won't get more patients tested. 2/n
So the other part of the challenge is getting more labs into the effort. This is where the efforts by Quest and LabCorp to start their own testing, as well as the FDA policy accommodation that makes it easier for academic labs to start running their own tests, is critical. 3/n
The bottom line is this: The key metric is how many patients can be tested a day. The way to grow that number substantially is to expand universe of labs that can offer #coronavirus tests, and make sure they have the reagents or kits to run the samples that providers send. 4/n
It's must continue to be two pronged strategy. Expanding the universe of labs that can offer testing is just as critical as expanding supply of test kits or reagents that are consumed in the process of conducting these tests. Appropriately, the focus has been on both these goals.
* Error: 2nd tweet should read “throughput” not “throughout”
