Earlier quoted context omitted.
If only CDC allowed "non official" tests.
This is the real problem. Both the CDC and the FDA stopped everyone else from making progress on testing and we only started getting more tests when labs decided to disobey them. Cockups like this really should lay to rest the idea some people have that the federal government is a panacea for everything. This is very similar to one of Warren Buffett's quote about investing in companies: “I try to invest in businesses…
All these things about idiots being in charge is, as Buffet said, true of companies as well. Nothing is a panacea.