U.S. capacity for COVID-19 testing is still a fraction of what is needed, and automatic testing could expand capacity at labs from ~75 a day to ~1,000 a day.
But the federal government won't allow it. Why not? No one knows! Right now it's a mystery.
nytimes.com/2020/03/08/nyr…
But the federal government won't allow it. Why not? No one knows! Right now it's a mystery.
nytimes.com/2020/03/08/nyr…
The only quote from a federal official in the NYT article is from an HHS spox, and it's presented in a way that misleadingly suggests everything is fine now, nothing more is needed.
But the issue is that even though NY now has tests, it can only run a small fraction per a day.
But the issue is that even though NY now has tests, it can only run a small fraction per a day.
Just one week ago, the CDC was saying that because the U.S. had "aggressively controlled our borders," that "allow[ed] us to control our efforts" by "focus[ing] surveillance for those at highest risk" – i.e., by only testing those who'd been to China.
cdc.gov/media/releases…
cdc.gov/media/releases…
People were already dying of undetected COVID-19 infections, and the CDC's position was that testing for unknown cases wasn't needed because "right now the case count in the US is really low and that is a reflection of the aggressive containment efforts of the US government."
In response to a question about "could [COVID-19] be a problem" if it takes root in the community, the CDC's answer was "no": "We will continue to work aggressively to try to keep that number low. The spread we hope will be limited, and any disease in the U.S. will be mild."
