Shipments of free coronavirus tests will take at least a week, U.S. officials say.

[BumRushDaShow]

11. Unless the manufacturing process is all robots

(and I know Japan has gone that route for some things) then someone needs to hire physical bodies from a depleted workforce to actually manufacture the things. Unfortunately there is no Star Trek "replicator" out there to instantly generate test kits.



This is part of the reason why there are shortages as well.

Back last spring, a couple of the biggest ones (Abbott and Becton-Dickinsen) had shut down manufacturing and laid off employees because the latest first wave at the time had pretty much waned, the vaccines were getting out there and there was this collective "aura" about "turning a corner", and this thing would be done by the end of that year. This was before Delta. Fast forward to now, with Delta having rampaged around the world over the summer, and then Omicron through winter, and here we are. These manufacturers had to restart operations. Meanwhile Chinese companies were trying to fill the gap but like any other medical device (which is what these kits are), they had to submit data for EUAs (including the manufacturing processes, validations, etc), and get their data reviewed and approved by FDA before being available for sale. These things aren't like making fast food - ripping open the plastic off some frozen hamburgers, throwing them in a grill, slapping them in buns, adding the toppings, wrapping them in paper, and handing them to a customer.

And then you have what (IMHO) basically amounts to a nasty argument between the "pro-test" scientists and medical community and the "anti-test" ones ("anti-" in terms of them insisting that testing should be limited to specific circumstances and not continual nor for anyone without symptoms, whether they are asymptomatic or uninfected - mainly because you can get a negative test at 8 am and then test again at 4 pm and come up positive).

So this leaves the public health officials in a bind trying to navigate between the 2 camps - each side loudly proclaiming their positions - amplified by the media who has to get eyeballs and will "play both sides against the middle".