Posted on 03/12/2020 4:34:01 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
America has failed to meet the capacity for coronavirus testing that it needs, a top public health official publicly acknowledged Thursday.
"The system is not really geared to what we need right now," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a House hearing about coronavirus test kits in the United States, which were initially dogged by technical glitches. "That is a failing. Let's admit it."
Fauci was responding to a question from Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Florida, who asked about a claim by trade organization National Nurses United alleging that "countless" health care workers exposed to the coronavirus have been refused a test for it.
When the virus first started appearing in America, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had narrow criteria for who could be tested for it, further limiting the number of tests performed on top of the technical problems. Those guidelines have since been expanded. Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the CDC, who was also testifying in the hearing, directed Wasserman Schultz's question to Fauci.
"The idea of anybody getting it easily the way people in other countries are doing it, we're not set up for that," Fauci told Wasserman Schultz. "Do I think we should be? Yes. But we're not."
The blunt acknowledgment came as the CDC reported it had tested just over 11,000 specimens for the virus so far, far fewer than other nations, especially given that multiple specimens are needed for each patient. Meanwhile, South Korea is testing nearly 20,000 patients per day, according to the BBC.
In response to Fauci, Wasserman Schultz said: "That's really disturbing, and I appreciate the information."
The question came a week after a nurse exposed to the virus in northern California said in a statement through National Nurses United
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
Tests were available. Numbers were limited by defective production of some of the initial tests that affected availability and bureaucratic rules that limited who could do the tests. Big government issues.
baffling. trump knew of this (it is all over social media) and didn’t hard-reverse the policies in question - he could even have allowed other tests that DO work and apparently can be mass produced to be used. still stories going around of folks not being able to get approved for testing every day.
Who do you want to test that you can’t test already? If millions of tests aren’t enough, then they must not be that critical. Or there is something amiss in the system as a whole.
Social media is a poor reference source.
Less than 7000 tests administered in the US to date....260,000 in South Korea.
That’s not accurate as it doesn’t include Dr.s offices and various clinics testing who don’t report.
We definitley need to be testing like S Korea 20,000 or more a day. If for no other reason then to stop the panic an alarmist. The major learning from S Korea is that the fatality rate is not as high as thought-theirs is .008, bad but not panic territory
Surprising isn’t it that this panic was not sounded in 2009 when H7N7 virus killed over 12,00 US citizens?
As more test are done you will see more confirmed cases abut death rate dropping as it already has started to do that’s because it is more mild than reported for most people and so far only serious cases get counted for the most part. There will be more deaths, it might even surpass the 12,461 deaths in US in 2009 from H7N9 aka swine flu.
But the fatality rate for COVID 19 is nowhere near as high as some alarmist make it out to be. That is why no one, repeat ZERO under the age of 10 has died anywhere in the world.
The country that has done the most testing that can be relied upon is S Korea , they have tested well over 250,000 and have 7,869 cases and 66 deaths for a fatality rate of .008 or less than 1%. That is more than the flu but nothing like what some are reporting here and in the news.
As a matter of fact if you add up the top 15 countries with reported cases excluding China, Italy and Iran ) you get over 20,446 cases and 247 deaths for a fatality rate of .012-about 1%. It’s probably even lower and more in line with S Korea as many cases are even more mild go unreported.
Imagine if “testing centers” opened tomorrow.
How many riots would occur, how many more people would get sick waiting in line, stories about how the testing centers are in white areas, only white people are getting tested, how many false negs, false positives, how many people would react harshly over the results.
By the time results came in, the danger would have passed.
It’s a lose/lose/lose.
Testing people who exhibit symptoms only makes sense.
I actually gave them a big “benefit of the doubt” bonus number...total tests performed up until 3/1/202 was 3,890 performed in the USA and ~260,000 performed in S. Korea...USA has now starting to test much more after 3/1 but so has S. Korea. The new USA 3/11/2020 total is 13,624 (including private Dr. office/private lab tests). But the critical time for testing to contain the virus was early (January) and the US was in the low hundreds of tests then, allowing the virus to progress to the “community spread” phase without health professionals knowing where the cases were. See below for test #’s:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/testing-in-us.html
He’s been in charge for DECADES and the CDC has ROD ROSENSTEIN SISTER in charge. And now its TRUMP’S fault?
OMG... MAN UP!
H7N9 was the bird flu, 2013.
But you’re right about the panic now compared to 2009. Look at who was president at the time.
it is actually the only way to learn of these sorts of things.
As long as you understand most of what is said is BS.
of course. you have to filter. i had to filter company news for most of my adult life to find stuff that was actually pertinent vs. noise.fluff. I have begun to realize I do it without thinking but many people get swamped by useless noise and hype on this topic because they never had to filter so much junk before.
if you want to wait for official facts from the cdc, i expect they will have everything right well after the fact.
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