Andy Slavitt, Obama's CMS Admin: "US is failing to produce even small number of testing kits"👀

[Dennis Donovan]

Andy Slavitt ✔@ASlavitt

BREAKING: The US is failing to produce even small number of testing kits for COVID-19 extraction despite Trump & Pence statements.

Labs and states are worried. Expect next to no availability to continue for weeks. It is vital to self-quarantine.

Story last night by @politico where the CDC admitted it was out of the kits needed to extract the RNA samples.

The commercial labs & states are now saying the same. Even the small number of tests being produced are not increasing or grinding to a halt.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/10/coronavirus-testing-lab-materials-shortage-125212 …
Exclusive: U.S. coronavirus testing threatened by shortage of critical lab materials
The slow pace of coronavirus testing has created a major gap in the U.S. public health response.

I’m going to try to explain what is happening but I’m NOT very science-y.

It’s not the testing ability but the SUPPLY CHAIN of all the things you need to extract the RNA sample (who you know if someone has tested positive) through something called PCR.

This extraction process is where (RNA kits) are on back order everywhere. Not just CDC but universities and commercial labs.

The leading supplier is a company called Qiagen. I have not talked to them but am hearing it will be weeks.

My guess as to why & what’s next...

1- Trump Admin downplayed & didn’t plan. During the China outbreak I suspect every country took care of this but us
2- The insufficient number being produced are likely being hoarded.
3- People are trying to find other ways or suppliers but are not getting CDC help.
4- These things are solvable but are harder at scale & in a crisis.
5- There are other things likely in right supply that we don’t know yet: equipment, re-agents. So this won’t be solved by fixing one issue.

The best thing that can happen is hopefully today the universities, lab cos, and CDC will come public & initiate a plan, including rationing where those kits go in the short term to frontline workers who need them.

In the meantime, if you think you MIGHT have the virus, assume you have it and self-quarantine.

In the meantime, take all measures to prevent spread— social distancing in particular.

More if I learn more. Sorry for the length.

9:26 AM - Mar 11, 2020

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[dewsgirl]

2. I think there may be something much darker at play here, I hope

I am wrong and it's only
incompetence.
They seem to be doing nothing to slow the spread, the only travel ban was on China.
People can't get tested, especially in red states, even with a doctor's recommendation and direct links to other covid 19 patients.

[spanone]

3. trump told us live on TV that he wanted to keep the numbers down....and they are.

[bullwinkle428]

4. For the 3rd week in a row, we've heard that "there will be thousands of kits

available by the end of the week!" And this time, it was Anthony Fauci saying it, so it's like even the genuine experts are now part of the "empty promise brigade".

[dawg day]

5. It makes no sense that south Korea has been able

To test thousands a day since almost the beginning, and the USA with all its great medical research facilities can't do a fraction of that?

And Trump's solution is tax cuts and bailing out the oil shale companies.

[gademocrat7]

6. K&R

Criminal negligence by trump and his minions.