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The CDC had issues with quality control on the test kits that must be distributed before labs outside of CDC Atlanta can begin doing their own testing. https:/

The CDC had issues with quality control on the test kits that must be distributed before labs outside of CDC Atlanta can begin doing their own testing. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/testing.html https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/testing.html The plan was always to expand testing, but you need a working test kit first. >Six public health labs in the US plan to start monitoring the general population for the new coronavirus this week. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that the risk of the virus still remains low for the general population. But activating the disease surveillance network will allow the CDC and other public health officials to find any undetected virus circulating through the country. https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/24/21147157/coronavirus-lab-surveillance-flu-cdc-virus-tracking-testing https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/24/21147157/coronavirus-lab-... Edited to add that according to Pro Publica the problem stems from the CDC trying to get a little too fancy. >The federal agency shunned the World Health Organization test guidelines used by other countries and set out to create a more complicated test of its own that could identify a range of similar viruses. https://www.propublica.org/article/cdc-coronavirus-covid-19-test https://www.propublica.org/article/cdc-coronavirus-covid-19-...

onlyrealcuzzo 7y ago
Why can't the CDC make a working test kit? After China, every other country seems to have been able to do it in like 2-3 days after a few cases were discovered.
- Reelin 7y ago
  They can and did. The issues in the US are entirely bureaucratic in nature.
zaroth 7y ago
Apparently the CDC has screwed up the “test kit” in numerous ways. First, they made it needlessly complicated by trying to make it test for other SARS-like viruses, and those tests were flagging a large number of false positives. Secondly, labs that are developing their own tests to mirror the CDC are being prohibited from using them due to onerous and absurd requirements like demonstrating their test wouldn’t falsely identify MERS as COVID-19, when MERS samples are nearly impossible to obtain. https://www.propublica.org/article/cdc-coronavirus-covid-19-test https://www.propublica.org/article/cdc-coronavirus-covid-19-...
pmorici 7y ago
South Korea tested on the order of 10,000 people today alone and found roughly 300 positive cases. The USA has managed to test around 500 in the past two months. I'm extremely concerned this isn't being treated with an appropriate level of hair on fire urgency. They said 2 weeks ago they were going to start expanded testing in 5 cities and they are still developing a testing procedure?
- chiefalchemist 7y ago
  > I'm extremely concerned this isn't being treated with an appropriate level of hair on fire urgency. Or, the actions are to be given more weight that the words. That is, perhaps the response is actually appreciate. Let's recap: The CDC has made a couple statements. The POTUS has down played things. On the other hand, the mainstream media has pinned the sensationalism meter. Fact: It's been a fairly active "traditional" flu season. Plenty have gotten sick. Plenty have died. Coverage? Zero. Comparison between the flu and this corona virus? Again, zero. There's disconnected and mixed messages, and plenty of misinformation. I'm not dismissing the threat. Just the same the signal to noise ratio is ridiculous. Full disclosure: I carry a lot of contempt for the mainstream media. My level of trust, close to zero. The coverge of this issue does more to deepen my mistrust more than gain it. Based on discussions I've had with peers, I'm not alone.
  - jonahbenton 7y ago
    Your contempt leads you to falsehoods and further confusion. Put it away before it gets you hurt. There is no comparison between flu and Corona. Deaths of non-immune compromised flu sufferers in the US are tiny (1 in my state, NYS, this whole season). Corona appears to be at least 100 times as deadly as the flu for non-immune compromised, probably more, and there are so many unknowns (eg repeat sufferers). There is no universe in which "POTUS has down played things" is anywhere near a rational distillation of the behavior of this administration. Take the glasses off. Put away the contempt. Use your brain. Don't be a fool.
    - chiefalchemist 7y ago
Reelin 7y ago
> The plan was always to expand testing, but you need a working test kit first. I'd like to call out the fact that the impediments to testing in the US were and are entirely bureaucratic in nature. The CDC publicly published a real-time RT-PCR protocol (including primer and probe sequences) at the end of January. Since that time, it has been entirely possible (from a technical standpoint) for any properly equipped lab to perform tests. By properly equipped, I mean BSL-2 with a real-time RT-PCR machine - this in not at all an uncommon setup. Other types of PCR machines would require making appropriate modifications to the protocol, but any lab that already does such work will posses the required expertise (seriously, this stuff is _trivial_ by academic standards). Entirely separate from technical ability to perform an assay is legal status with regard to testing human samples for diagnostic purposes. To that end, the FDA failed to approve any vendor-specific test kits in a timely manner. This is frankly ludicrous under the circumstances, as South Korea managed to approve and make available at least two different test kits in the same time frame - they even have drive-thru testing stations set up!

onlyrealcuzzo 7y ago

Why can't the CDC make a working test kit? After China, every other country seems to have been able to do it in like 2-3 days after a few cases were discovered.

Reelin 7y ago
They can and did. The issues in the US are entirely bureaucratic in nature.

zaroth 7y ago

Apparently the CDC has screwed up the “test kit” in numerous ways. First, they made it needlessly complicated by trying to make it test for other SARS-like viruses, and those tests were flagging a large number of false positives. Secondly, labs that are developing their own tests to mirror the CDC are being prohibited from using them due to onerous and absurd requirements like demonstrating their test wouldn’t falsely identify MERS as COVID-19, when MERS samples are nearly impossible to obtain. https://www.propublica.org/article/cdc-coronavirus-covid-19-test https://www.propublica.org/article/cdc-coronavirus-covid-19-...

pmorici 7y ago

South Korea tested on the order of 10,000 people today alone and found roughly 300 positive cases. The USA has managed to test around 500 in the past two months. I'm extremely concerned this isn't being treated with an appropriate level of hair on fire urgency. They said 2 weeks ago they were going to start expanded testing in 5 cities and they are still developing a testing procedure?

chiefalchemist 7y ago
> I'm extremely concerned this isn't being treated with an appropriate level of hair on fire urgency. Or, the actions are to be given more weight that the words. That is, perhaps the response is actually appreciate. Let's recap: The CDC has made a couple statements. The POTUS has down played things. On the other hand, the mainstream media has pinned the sensationalism meter. Fact: It's been a fairly active "traditional" flu season. Plenty have gotten sick. Plenty have died. Coverage? Zero. Comparison between the flu and this corona virus? Again, zero. There's disconnected and mixed messages, and plenty of misinformation. I'm not dismissing the threat. Just the same the signal to noise ratio is ridiculous. Full disclosure: I carry a lot of contempt for the mainstream media. My level of trust, close to zero. The coverge of this issue does more to deepen my mistrust more than gain it. Based on discussions I've had with peers, I'm not alone.
- jonahbenton 7y ago
  Your contempt leads you to falsehoods and further confusion. Put it away before it gets you hurt. There is no comparison between flu and Corona. Deaths of non-immune compromised flu sufferers in the US are tiny (1 in my state, NYS, this whole season). Corona appears to be at least 100 times as deadly as the flu for non-immune compromised, probably more, and there are so many unknowns (eg repeat sufferers). There is no universe in which "POTUS has down played things" is anywhere near a rational distillation of the behavior of this administration. Take the glasses off. Put away the contempt. Use your brain. Don't be a fool.
  - chiefalchemist 7y ago

Reelin 7y ago

> The plan was always to expand testing, but you need a working test kit first. I'd like to call out the fact that the impediments to testing in the US were and are entirely bureaucratic in nature. The CDC publicly published a real-time RT-PCR protocol (including primer and probe sequences) at the end of January. Since that time, it has been entirely possible (from a technical standpoint) for any properly equipped lab to perform tests. By properly equipped, I mean BSL-2 with a real-time RT-PCR machine - this in not at all an uncommon setup. Other types of PCR machines would require making appropriate modifications to the protocol, but any lab that already does such work will posses the required expertise (seriously, this stuff is _trivial_ by academic standards). Entirely separate from technical ability to perform an assay is legal status with regard to testing human samples for diagnostic purposes. To that end, the FDA failed to approve any vendor-specific test kits in a timely manner. This is frankly ludicrous under the circumstances, as South Korea managed to approve and make available at least two different test kits in the same time frame - they even have drive-thru testing stations set up!