Thread by @EricTopol

What will go down as the biggest breakdown in the US response to #COVID19 is the lack of test kits. South Korea and the US had their 1st patients on Jan 20 and Jan 21, respectively. Look at the difference in daily testing. By March 4th, SK was ~18,000 per day.

On March 14, Dr. Barbara Birx did, "When you are tested, and our results look very similar to South Korea now, with South Korea with 96% plus of people with symptoms are negative." That's 4% positive by CDC tests.
Fully transparent: @COVID19Tracking w/ a 9.7% positive rate today

Similar plot of South Korea vs US #COVID19 test data today @nytimes; it includes more recent CDC data, the cumulative N of tests 55 days after each country's 1st patient was diagnosed, confirmed cases, and has a different Y-axis display from mine
nytimes.com/interactive/20…

It's not just US vs South Korea
nytimes.com/interactive/20…
US vs X.

Let’s be clear. These countries, including South Korea, used the @WHO test which now @POTUS and others are characterizing as a “bad” test. And why did it take ~50 days in the US to ramp up with any test?

If there's any doubt that #COVID19 testing helped save lives in South Korea or that the US totally botched this up —"the single point of failure"—these 2 new pieces will allay that
—newyorker.com/news/news-desk… @bobbybaird @NewYorker
—cnn.com/2020/03/16/opi… @CNN