WaPo: 11 to 100,000: What went wrong with coronavirus testing in the U.S.

[Dennis Donovan]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/30/11-100000-what-went-wrong-with-coronavirus-testing-us/

By Meg Kelly, Sarah Cahlan and Elyse Samuels

March 30, 2020 at 3:00 a.m. EDT

“We have it totally under control.”

— President Trump, in an interview, on Jan. 22

“We're in great shape in our country. We have 11, and the 11 are getting better. ”

— Trump, in remarks, on Feb. 10

“You may ask about the coronavirus, which is very well under control in our country.”

— Trump, in a news conference, on Feb. 25

“It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear.”

— Trump, in remarks, on Feb. 27

“Anybody that needs a test, gets a test. They’re there. They have the tests. And the tests are beautiful.”

— Trump, in remarks at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, March 6

When the first U.S. case of the novel coronavirus was confirmed, President Trump assured the American people that the situation was “totally under control.” Cabinet officials, the vice president and the president repeated that refrain throughout February. By the end of that month, as global financial markets and the American public started to quiver, Trump held firm: “You may ask about the coronavirus, which is very well under control in our country.”

With the clarity of hindsight, it is obvious the situation was very much not under control. In reality, a lack of testing gave a false picture of how many people across the country were infected.

Through government documents, testimony, news reports and interviews, The Fact Checker video team has reconstructed events that left the government blind to the virus’s spread, and examined how those errors opened the door for 11 confirmed cases to balloon to more than 100,000 in less than six weeks.

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THAT's why hundreds of thousands will needlessly die in the US.

[Igel]

1. It's one reason.

But it confuses testing with what's tested, to some extent. And assumes that we'd have tested the right groups.

One thing that S. Korea taught us was that a lot of positives were asymptomatic. It was suspected this was the case and that they were also highly infectious, but the reports were sparse and action in response would have had to be extreme. They only found that out because they tested an entire subpopulation.

This, however, was after the outbreak here. By then it had slipped containment, and with the asymptomatic folk scattered about--already in several cities--the thing was off its leash.

Most of the rest is wishful thinking, finding somebody to blame. Trump's administration--esp. the CDC and, unless we think that we have a large CDC where only one person ever makes a decision while the rest sit around waiting for wisdom to rain down upon them from above like pigeon droppings, it's not just the political folk. They restricted the test to just the CDC test and labs until late February, they didn't do quality control on the production they contracted for, they fixed it late and only later allowed non-CDC labs to process the kits (and that only after certification). Only later than that did they certify non-CDC-produced tests--last week, in fact.

Contrast that with S. Korea. 1/26 (28?) they called for industry to develop tests. 2/6, first privately produced test approved. (The same day the CDC said it had a test.) Immediately it was announced in S. Korea that anyplace, basically, that had the tech for the kit processing could process it--labs, clinics, test centers. The US had a handful of test processing sites when Korea had over 500, because Korea didn't focus on regulations that strangled the process. The S. Korean lab didn't use equipment not widely available, unlike the CDC test. By 2/12 Korea had a second test approved, which used common tech.

The CDC was focused on control and making sure bad people didn't do bad things. In so doing, they kept pretty much anybody from doing anything.

Iceland followed the same route as S. Korea.

[Andy823]

2. What went wrong in one word

TRUMP!

[spanone]

3. K&R...

[uponit7771]

4. K&R, without nationwide unrestricted testing we stay in limited lock down even with a "flat curve"

[Stuart G]

5. Thanks for the great post...K and R...THANK YOU too, for all the work you do!!!