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US admits 'failing' on testing, says Fauci

bbc.com

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Re: US admits 'failing' on testing, says Fauci

#2
Sounds like he's being too honest. Expect him to be replaced imminently.

Seriously, how are we so bad at this? We knew it was coming and South Korea has been testing 10k/day since Feb, so it's clearly doable. We've done <10k total! What in the world is going on with the tests?

Re: US admits 'failing' on testing, says Fauci

#3
It’s so hard to trust the media to report on anything without trying to inflame the “orange man bad” narrative.

In Australia almost no one with some or most of the symptoms is being tested. General Practitioners are basically telling people to fuck off, self isolate and call the hospital if symptoms worsen.

https://apple.news/ASvoRONOWS9ijWX4RrGmiTQ

“Currently we are not testing everyone, and whilst this may change in the future, at the moment this isn’t feasible. The pressure on labs would be mammoth and the yield is likely low,”

Similar stories from colleagues in Europe.

Re: US admits 'failing' on testing, says Fauci

#4
Realistically there is no "US" any more. Fauci is speaking for the NIAID, and arguably for the scientific community within the CDC/NIH/HHS. The white house certainly wouldn't be on board with this message, but as we saw last night even the white house is inconsistent with its own policies in important ways.

But yes: we messed up. We weren't prepared to begin with, we rolled back a bunch of existing preparedness work, when the disease arrived we turtled instead of testing, and then we refused to scale the testing capability for critical weeks. At this point it's too late. Better testing is still needed to inform the hard public health decisions that will have to be made, but it's no longer able to contain outbreaks that have grown orders of magnitude too large.

Re: US admits 'failing' on testing, says Fauci

#6
post #2

Sounds like he's being too honest. Expect him to be replaced imminently. Seriously, how are we so bad at this? We knew it was coming and South Korea has been testing 10k/day since Feb, so it's clearly doable. We've done <10k total! What in the world is going on with the tests?

>What in the world is going on with the tests?

It appears the main driver has been lack of chemicals and in the beginning, the cdc required tests to be sent to them. The states can now test on their own.

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/3/12/21175034/co...

Re: US admits 'failing' on testing, says Fauci

#7

It’s so hard to trust the media to report on anything without trying to inflame the “orange man bad” narrative. In Australia almost no one with some or most of the symptoms is being tested. General Practitioners are basically telling people to fuck off, self isolate and call the hospital if symptoms worsen. https://apple.news/ASvoRONOWS9ijWX4RrGmiTQ “Currently we are not testing everyone, and whilst this may change i…

At what point does it become OK to point out that the "orange man" is, in fact, bad? Fox news and republican leaders spent weeks (weeks that we can't get back) trying to tell people that this wasn't a problem, that they shouldn't prepare, and that this was all a partisan argument against the president. And that was all wrong. It's real, it's happening, and we've lost critical time.

That's bad, right? And it's bad in a distinctly partisan way, because the "other side" didn't say or do that stuff, and was broadly correct in its pronouncements. Can we say that? When can we say that? Or is any amount of wrongdoing or incompetence allowed as long as you get a whole political party to do it at once?

Re: US admits 'failing' on testing, says Fauci

#9
post #5

Admitting and identifying the problem is the first step. The Cleveland Clinic just came out with an 8 hour test and hopefully this will help the situation if they share the process. https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/3/12/21175034/co...

I live in Cleveland, and it sounds like they're considering the drive-thru testing approach as a possibility. Hoping this ramps up this month.

Re: US admits 'failing' on testing, says Fauci

#10

It’s so hard to trust the media to report on anything without trying to inflame the “orange man bad” narrative. In Australia almost no one with some or most of the symptoms is being tested. General Practitioners are basically telling people to fuck off, self isolate and call the hospital if symptoms worsen. https://apple.news/ASvoRONOWS9ijWX4RrGmiTQ “Currently we are not testing everyone, and whilst this may change i…

>In Australia almost no one with some or most of the symptoms is being tested. General Practitioners are basically telling people to fuck off, self isolate and call the hospital if symptoms worsen.

This is simply false:

>Here, testing is free and widely available, thanks to early and coordinated planning for a pandemic. On Thursday, Mr. Hanks said he and his wife had seen the efforts firsthand, as they tested positive for the virus.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/12/world/australia/tom-hanks...

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