Why is the "Testing for COVID-19 for all " being ignored?

[FarPoint]

The Italian and Asian approach was to test, quarantine, retest again and quarantine....US....not at all organized...Still, testing is being a challenge to get! Many exposed healthcare workers can't even get tested...Why is this? Do I need a tinfoil hat?

[unblock]

1. turns out there's a downside to having an idiot clown who is incapable of empathy as president.

who knew.

[Act_of_Reparation]

2. You don't need a tinfoil hat.

Whether it is deliberate or by accident is simply incidental; the federal government is to blame for the shortage.

[Ms. Toad]

3. Tests are not available.

It's not that they are not important - it is that it is impossible to do.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

17. IF there were someone competent in the WH you might have testing available.

Of course, someone competent in the WH wouldn't have fired the pandemic response team and the worst of the crisis may have been avoided.

Wishing you good luck that surpasses the botched job by the maladministration.

[Ms. Toad]

19. Yup.

Although Ohio (even with a Republican governor) seems to have gotten fewer per capita than other places.

[Crunchy Frog]

18. There's a reason they've never been available in this country.

Even though they have been in all but the most backward other countries.

[Ms. Toad]

20. Agreed.

Aside from anything else, I think we can look to Trump's response to the cruise ship - essentially - I like my numbers where they are, the cruise ship isn't our fault, so I don't wany my pretty record tarnished by all those sick people.

No testing = lower numbers = easier to dismiss as a nothing burger. Too back all those really sick and dead people are messing it up.

[MerryBlooms]

4. It's criminal the way this is being handled.

[lark]

5. drumpf partially owns the only co making the test and distributing it and they are tiny.

It's Jared's brothers' co. and drumpf is a part owner. They had 16 ee and were failing having lots tons of money each of the 3 years it's been in business. Now they have the contract approved by CDC for the entire USA. Yes, Labcorp and Quest supposedly have their own tests, but do you know of anyone tested by them? When people at ADT were confirmed w/Covid19, they were told there's insufficient tests for everyone and everyone was sent home for 11 days. This is just freaking insane. Why are we getting kits from WHO, SK did massive testing, are we so much more stupid than them? Sadly, the answer is plainly our admiistration is ineffective and doesn't give a shit and is letting us die for their own purposes/profits.

[BigmanPigman]

8. This is unacceptable.

This better be included in the HHS investigations.

[lark]

11. Barr will stop it dead.

Nothing touches drumpf as long as Barr continues covering for him at all turns.

[FarPoint]

12. Our healthcare workers....

There are going to be a lot of victims from this workforce...

[lark]

14. It's so maddening because they are being killed for assmouth's personal profit.

He's so in over his head, he won't even try to swim, he just flounders and flails and sues anyone that advertises this. He doesn't care how many die as long as he can blame others and that's why he refuses to take action. He wants us to die and then he will blame the Democratic governors - that is his plan.

[still_one]

6. Two reasons. First one is they don't have enough testing kits, and the second reason is that when

they do get enough testing kits, the administration doesn't want the extent of the COVID-19 to be public

[brewens]

7. I've seen deflection when they are asked about what happened to "everybody that wants a test gets a

test". They explain that we don't want everyone in the country tested, when that's not the issue. It's that we should be testing at least everyone that has symptoms or thinks they may have been exposed.

[FarPoint]

10. I noticed that too!

It's just creepy...

[brewens]

15. In one case the reporter phrased the question as "when can we get everybody tested?" I took that

as meaning everyone we need to have tested, but it let Trump get away with it that time.

[FarPoint]

9. Well.

I can see that this is a good discussion question. . It's been bothering me for days... It's not just me...

[Baked Potato]

13. Because of FreeDumb !

[Igel]

16. The Italians tested a lot.

But nonetheless ...

S. Korea tested even more. They were partly just lucky: Most of the cases were in one particular group in one area. They got good compliance when asking for the members of the group to come forward or be IDed. Others were easier to spot--and few enough that they could backtrack. (The "backtrack" is crucial here. Not just test/quarantine/retest.)

At this point we've tested more than the Italians--but have 5-6x the pop. Over 430,000 tests--and consider that a minimum, since some private testers aren't reporting their data in full, and neither are some states. Best practice is to report positives, negatives, and totals, but a lot are just reporting positives (and some aren't reporting all of those, because it's not required and, if it were, who'd be going around enforcing the requirement?).

No, the US wasn't organized. The government had its test, and it screwed it up. Government does that sometimes, government's just a bunch of people, all of which are fallible. Then the government regulated tests and it took a while to validate and authorize other tests--again, the downside of regulations, they just don't always do what you want and you just can't say "naw, not today" and still say, "It's the law!" And by "government" I don't mean the Oval Office; this was the CDC and pretty much was decided in toto by the CDC.

As for people not being able to be tested, this varies a lot by time and place, so when you hear that claim, you really need to think of those as a triplet: The claim is the claim and not to be dismissed, but without a time stamp and location it's still fairly meaningless.