After missteps, CDC says its coronavirus test kit is ready for primetime

NBC NEWS ^ | Today | Elizabeth Chuck

[cba123]

Some states received test kits that were inconclusive or only partially accurate. Other states said they were hamstrung by testing criteria so narrow, it limited who they could screen for the new coronavirus.

For more than a month, officials throughout the country have been asking the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to enable more widespread testing for the never-before-seen infection, as coronavirus cases around the globe rose past 82,000.

But technical difficulties reduced the number of laboratories in the U.S. with working test kits to only about a dozen, including CDC headquarters in Atlanta. That delayed results for suspected patients and frustrated public health authorities.

Things changed this week: Top federal health officials announced they had modified the testing protocol, expanded criteria for who could be tested and worked out the technical problems with the tests, positioning more state and local laboratories to finally have the ability to test for COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. But, the officials acknowledged, the process was rocky.

(Please see link, for full story)

[Mariner]

A full month after US Travel restrictions. And a full month after every developed country in the world.

A full 2.5 months after CDC had it’s first sample of the virus.

Now we have a working test kit?

Should not somebody be held responsible for this debacle?

[Mom MD]

ground glass infiltrates are nonspecific markers of inflammation. there are literally hundreds of causes and are seen incidentally in perfectly healthy people. i would it think this would be a good screen. I think the right clinical picture and neg flu would be better

[null and void]

When your only tool is a CAT scan, everything is a cat...

[mewzilla]

I want whatever you’re smoking. Please tell us why this disease would suddenly just stop spreading and go away?

Dude, it happens all the time. And if this one doesn't, we'll have a vaccine soon for anyone who wants it.

As an aside, and with noone specific in mind, let me just say that this insanity is what happens when a society raises a nation full of scientific illiterates.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

Please tell us why this disease would suddenly just stop spreading and go away?

Because it's a political "disease" just like ebola, Russia Russia Russia, and peak oil.

[null and void]

Bring Out Your Dead

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

If a quarantine saves just one child's life, it's worth it.

[bgill]

Only two months late to the party.

[Qout]

As the number of labs able to do the tests expands from 12 on Wednesday to 40 by Friday and over 90 next week and more tests are done, we will discover more cases of COVID-19 infection. Don’t be alarmed as the number of documented cases jumps next week. It will just be a result of more testing.

There are about 8,000 people in the US who are doing self-quarantine. At least half of them have not been tested. Meanwhile, take your vitamin C and D regularly, and wash your hands regularly including when you first get home.

[BushCountry]

Wrong. There are likely hundreds/thousands of others that are not even sick (the vast majority of under 50). You say take away numbers, I say to add to the healthy side and divide. The chart below is from know cases. Likely there are a multitude that are unknown and not sick. All signs suggest that many people may have had mild cases of the virus and recovered without special treatment. .

[I want the USA back]

Trump will be trashed, claiming that this is too late. If it works, he will get no credit. If there’s a problem, they will trash Trump.

Those who hate Trump will never give him credit for anything.

[null and void]

OK, let's do it your way.

China has an aging population we can assume that each decade has roughly the same number of people.

0.2+0.2+.02+.04+1.3+3.6+8+14.8)/8=3.6% fatality rate...

[Hiddigeigei]

Many years ago I was doing graduate research in a government atomic research lab and asked for some samples to be analyzed. I got such weird results that I talked to the flame-ionization detector technician and learned she had been there about five years and never checked her standards. The lab director shrugged his shoulders and said he had to work with what he had. I made up my own standard and re-calibrated the machine on a weekend, ran my own samples, and never told anyone about it. I’ve been somewhat suspicious of lab results since.

[Norseman]

I don’t know. I see a lot more “Nothing to see here, move along” types than I do “We’re all gonna DIE!” types in here lately.

And, regarding the Princess cruise comment I made on another thread, the authorities are again reporting that so far six of the 705 confirmed cases they are following have died. For a bit yesterday, the number posted had inexplicably been reduced to one from six, but apparently that was just an error.

It’s hard to see the deaths being less than 2%, or 14 cases from that group, especially since very few of them are shown as recovered yet. By the end of March that group will give us a very good idea of the fatality rate, at least for an older age group. I suspect 8 to 10% isn’t out of the question, but hopefully it will be far less than that.

[Norseman]

Even if S. Korea adds no more cases to their present 3,150, their death rate is already ten times your .05% number.

16/3,150 = .0051, or just over 0.5%.

[Norseman]

True. But he also said that it would require some specific training to do so. There are apparently patterns that keep showing up in most cases so if a radiologist is trained to look for those particular patterns he can diagnose the virus.

[firebrand]

If that is true, that is homicide.

How many fun-filled trips to conventions around the country did they go to on our dime?

[firebrand]

ping!

[Lazamataz]

Well I can never be SURE, but I do know that the vast majority of people *I* worked with, worked with honor and dedication.

[null and void]

Good to hear.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

True, in terms of absolute numbers, but the % death rate is higher. It should be much lower in this country than it allegedly is in Red China, though, since we are operating from a much healthier baseline.