Deborah Birx: 'Disappointing' that half a million coronavirus tests not being utilized

Washington Examiner ^ | March 31, 2020 | By Tim Pearce

[rintintin]

More than 500,000 coronavirus test kits are lying unused around the United States.

“It is disappointing to me right now that we have about 500,000 capacity of [tests] that are not being utilized," Birx said. "They are out. They are in the states. They are not being run and not utilized."

Birx said that much of the confusion is due to changing processes of getting medical test kits to the states. State officials, comfortable with the earlier processes, are missing kits because they are unfamiliar with the new procedures or recent updates.

"So, now we have to figure out how do we create awareness because, sometimes, when you put an early platform out, … people get dependent on that and then don't see that there's availability of other tests," Birx said. "So, right now, there are over half a million tests that are sitting, capacity, that are not being utilized."

[CaptainK]

In NYS you just can’t show up at a testing site. You have to get a doctor’s note first.

[nwrep]

Thanks for asking. I am an “Ever Trumper”.

[markman46]

no because some states are adhering to the old CDC testing guidelines, LA county has only tested 19,000, and Orange County has only tested 6600..

[deanking]

Ive never heard her say one confusing or vague thing. Please to provide an example. The fact is they are basing recommendations off of models that are always unreliable and prejudiced to worst case scenarios. God help us that current policy is being dictated by model projections. All this testing ruckus is mostly left wing media attempts to trash Trump. If all 300 million citizens were tested tomorrow what damn labs could possibly process them all in a timely fashion. This has to happen at a reasonable pace

[prophetic]

Meanwhile we see the like of New York and other states continually whining saying that "we want this, we want that, etc" while sitting on equipment & masks in warehouses in their backyards.

They are just milking this opportunity in the virus pandemic for all its worth!

[lepton]

It takes time for people working the troubles to set back and redesign processes. It’s frustrating, but that’s the way it works. It’s even worse once the processes start getting updated daily, or at random times during the day - especially if they don’t exactly fit local needs.

[Paladin2]

Has the been ANY CDC general population sampling?

[lepton]

If i needed a test, and knew of three test sites, id call all three and ask which could do it quickest.

---

Good initiative on your part. Overwhelming challenge at the other end for just answering all the phone calls of people doing the same thing - essentially a DDOS attack.

[Paladin2]

Has there been ANY CDC general population sampling?

[AndyJackson]

the feds haven’t communicated to the states that the tests are available

So you have been screaming up and down for test kits, a truckload of test kits arrive and you just ignore it because FEDGOV didn't send you the tracking number?

[Sequoyah101]

And of course we have the Sturgeon General and Fauchi / White House saying completely different things about masks.

Left hand. Right hand. Need to be introduced.

Gooberment incompetence and DGAF.

[TruthFactor]

Does your mom still wipe your butt. Sure sounds like it from that comment.

[nwrep]

Haha. The buck has to stop with the top guy. Thanks.

[Seruzawa]

It’s the private sector thatvis going to save us. As usual. The highest level bureaucrats are always the dumbest. Idiots who can’t read simple step by step instructions and carry them out.

[Cboldt]

500,000 tests at $500 each, might be abandoned for 500,000 tests at $50 each.

Reckless?

[Dogbert41]

It’s the same with ventilators. Sure, they say we’ll need a few million ventilators. How many trained people can hook up and run a ventilator? You need two, maybe three shifts of them 24/7. I’m not sure how many a single technician can operate and be responsible for, but I know it’s not a whole floor.

[PGR88]

I wonder if hoarding is going on?

Say a county hospital or health official receives 5000 of them. They may think: well, we may need them over the next weeks. Who knows when we will get more? For now, keep the rules on testing tight and conserve them!

[moonhawk]

Why wasn’t your county better prepared? Whose fault is that? Your county should have a full stockpile of medical nedessities.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Somebody in charge of the states’ efforts should have known about the kits being in-state because someone in their governmental system had to have received, signed for them, and then stored them off of a Govt- Bill of Laden.

The Feds did it right. Perhaps a break or lapse in communications at a lower level but someone in the state’s government new that a shipment was on its way or received. The rest was up to them.

[zeestephen]

Re: “Has there been ANY CDC general population sampling?”

As far as I can tell - NO, or almost no.

Here is the best link I can find:

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/post?id=3830435%2C27

CDC reports 4,766 CDC lab tests and 143,320 public health lab tests. Most of the CDC tests appear to be confirmations of state testing.

At the bottom half of the link, they post several feet of number tables, but they do not bother to add the numbers up, so I do not know if the tables equal the headline numbers.

Please note - the CDC says that total infection numbers equal lab confirmations PLUS presumptive cases - but no break down of those two numbers that I can see.