If i needed a test, and knew of three test sites, id call all three and ask which could do it quickest.
Yes, except here it would have been ONE state representative calling, or maybe one person for each county; after a day the state would say “Hey, we should have one person collect the information from each lab, and put it on a web site, and the counties and private businesses could check that.”
Or, they could all wait around for the feds to say “Hey, we sent X units to lab A, Y to lab B, and Z to lab C”.
Then they’d still have to call to see who was using them. Or they could wait for the feds to collect information from EVERY lab in the country, and compile it into some list, and then make that list available to every place in the country that wants to do a test.
It makes zero sense for this to be a federal job. THe feds should be taking orders from labs “We are down to 2 day supply at our current rate”, and then they send out another week’s supply. That’s it.