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The US is currently testing ~100k people each day: https://covidtracking.com/us-daily/ https://covidtracking.com/us-daily/ The failure at the beginning was no

The US is currently testing ~100k people each day: https://covidtracking.com/us-daily/ https://covidtracking.com/us-daily/ The failure at the beginning was not to have capacity ready. The huge US medical system and its very, very large medical industry has finally gotten pointed in the right direction in regards to testing.

Barrin92 7y ago
The testing capacity is good now but the response to the actual pandemic is a disaster. If you have the president talk about packed churches on Easter you can soon save yourself the testing because it's going to be hard to find someone who isn't infected
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- SpicyLemonZest 7y ago
  It's important for the president to communicate the message that lockdowns are bad and they're trying to get people out of their homes as soon as possible. I don't think anyone believes the president is actually going to pack churches on Easter if there's still a large outbreak at the time, but that'll be 4 weeks after the national stay at home initiative started, so it's pretty in line with the durations other countries have set.
  - triceratops 7y ago
    > It's important for the president to communicate the message that lockdowns are bad Why? I think we can all figure out by ourselves that lockdowns aren't fun. The people losing their jobs don't need to be told that - they have better experience than anyone else. Leadership means communicating difficult truths and convincing people to do the right thing even when it's unpleasant.
    - SpicyLemonZest 7y ago
      In order to effectively communicate difficult truths and convince people to do the right thing, you have to acknowledge their pain and present a plan for ending it. To just say "you have to lock down, too bad so sad" would be incredibly cruel and ineffective.
  - rsynnott 7y ago
    Some countries have said they’ll re-evaluate around the middle of April. Generally in the sense of potentially easing very strict lockdowns of the ‘“don’t go outside your house except to the supermarket unless you’re essential personnel” variety. Nowhere else but the US is claiming that as an end date, as far as I know.
    - SpicyLemonZest 7y ago
      Every national government I'm aware of has officially set a hard end date for their lockdown measures, even if they're unofficially pretty sure things will be extended. Even Italy and Spain.
      - rsynnott 7y ago
        So from a legal point of view, in democratic countries, it would not be feasible or wise to say “you’re shut down indefinitely”. The normal practice is to say “til date X, but restrictions will remain beyond that and we might extend”. Nowhere but the US is anyone promising an end date (and even there it’s just the wacky clown-President; in practice the civil service is implicitly contradicting him).
      - icebraining 7y ago
        Not an end to the lockdown, just the end of the validity of the current State of Emergency declaration, which can then be renewed. Here in Portugal, they've already stated the lockdown will remain in effect at least until the end of May, and haven't given any hard end dates.
jdkee 7y ago
I was tested this past Thursday and came back negative yesterday. Two weeks ago I was exhibiting the classic symptoms. Last week I had five days of noticeable shortness of breath, lethargy, sinus infection and a dry cough. I wanted to get tested a week ago this past Monday but did not meet the criteria. Now I am awaiting the availability of serological tests to see if I have the antibodies. I pulled the kids out of school on March 10th, ahead of our local district closing on March 13, and we have been self-quarantined since then. If I had the virus, the recent testing would likely not measure me as a positive case due to low viral expression. The fact that the U.S. did not have widespread surveillance testing since mid-January is criminally inept. China bought us eight weeks of ramp-up time which was bungled by our Executive branch who was more worried about the economy and stock market reaction than people's lives. Historically, this will likely go down as the largest failure of public health management in U.S. since our founding. After this passes, there needs to be large scale accountability for the CDC, FDA and the Executive branch that has brought us to the collapse of public health which will likely cost millions of U.S. lives.
- mancerayder 7y ago
  To add fuel to the fire, you could have mentioned the initial response from the executive branch: "It's basically like the flu." Over two weeks ago I was correcting people who are otherwise intelligent but "executive branch supporters" to use a potential euphemism, to get their elder parents outside of the city. One of these friends has someone close to them in the ICU on a respirator as I write this. Are they any less supporters of the executive branch? I think you already know the (depressing) answer.
- foobiekr 7y ago
  China bought us eight weeks of ramp up time? Was that before or after suppressing information about the issue for almost two months including getting WHO to claim there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission in January?
  - ireflect 7y ago
    After
mancerayder 7y ago
It took a very long time to get started. Check the history using the news headlines as your timeline. The Federal government rejected non-US tests/guidelines, while the CDC worked on a test. The test didn't work. The U.S. State of Washington had a solution, but the Federal government rejected it. Meanwhile some countries were conducting tests like crazy and were able to do some initial containment. In The U.S. we continued to go to the beach (Trump country), we went to farmer's markets (DNC country), and neither U.S. political culture made any effort to involve the authority figures to force citizens to stay apart. Because Freedom. Nice job, U.S. I write this holed up in the U.S. city with the most infections and deaths at the moment.
- jdkee 7y ago
  Stay safe. This too shall pass.
vkou 7y ago
> The US is currently testing ~100k people each day: Given how many people are still sharing their stories of "I am symptomatic, and I can't get tested, because I'm not literally dying in hospital", I daresay, we are not doing a good enough job of it.
JohnTHaller 7y ago
It's way too late for widespread testing to stop the initial big spread. We missed that window thanks to lapses in leadership, technical mistakes, and bureaucratic nonsense. Statisticians and doctors estimate that 600,000 to 1,200,000 are already infected.

Barrin92 7y ago

The testing capacity is good now but the response to the actual pandemic is a disaster. If you have the president talk about packed churches on Easter you can soon save yourself the testing because it's going to be hard to find someone who isn't infected

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
SpicyLemonZest 7y ago
It's important for the president to communicate the message that lockdowns are bad and they're trying to get people out of their homes as soon as possible. I don't think anyone believes the president is actually going to pack churches on Easter if there's still a large outbreak at the time, but that'll be 4 weeks after the national stay at home initiative started, so it's pretty in line with the durations other countries have set.
- triceratops 7y ago
  > It's important for the president to communicate the message that lockdowns are bad Why? I think we can all figure out by ourselves that lockdowns aren't fun. The people losing their jobs don't need to be told that - they have better experience than anyone else. Leadership means communicating difficult truths and convincing people to do the right thing even when it's unpleasant.
  - SpicyLemonZest 7y ago
    In order to effectively communicate difficult truths and convince people to do the right thing, you have to acknowledge their pain and present a plan for ending it. To just say "you have to lock down, too bad so sad" would be incredibly cruel and ineffective.
- rsynnott 7y ago
  Some countries have said they’ll re-evaluate around the middle of April. Generally in the sense of potentially easing very strict lockdowns of the ‘“don’t go outside your house except to the supermarket unless you’re essential personnel” variety. Nowhere else but the US is claiming that as an end date, as far as I know.
  - SpicyLemonZest 7y ago
    Every national government I'm aware of has officially set a hard end date for their lockdown measures, even if they're unofficially pretty sure things will be extended. Even Italy and Spain.
    - rsynnott 7y ago
      So from a legal point of view, in democratic countries, it would not be feasible or wise to say “you’re shut down indefinitely”. The normal practice is to say “til date X, but restrictions will remain beyond that and we might extend”. Nowhere but the US is anyone promising an end date (and even there it’s just the wacky clown-President; in practice the civil service is implicitly contradicting him).
    - icebraining 7y ago
      Not an end to the lockdown, just the end of the validity of the current State of Emergency declaration, which can then be renewed. Here in Portugal, they've already stated the lockdown will remain in effect at least until the end of May, and haven't given any hard end dates.

jdkee 7y ago

I was tested this past Thursday and came back negative yesterday. Two weeks ago I was exhibiting the classic symptoms. Last week I had five days of noticeable shortness of breath, lethargy, sinus infection and a dry cough. I wanted to get tested a week ago this past Monday but did not meet the criteria. Now I am awaiting the availability of serological tests to see if I have the antibodies. I pulled the kids out of school on March 10th, ahead of our local district closing on March 13, and we have been self-quarantined since then. If I had the virus, the recent testing would likely not measure me as a positive case due to low viral expression. The fact that the U.S. did not have widespread surveillance testing since mid-January is criminally inept. China bought us eight weeks of ramp-up time which was bungled by our Executive branch who was more worried about the economy and stock market reaction than people's lives. Historically, this will likely go down as the largest failure of public health management in U.S. since our founding. After this passes, there needs to be large scale accountability for the CDC, FDA and the Executive branch that has brought us to the collapse of public health which will likely cost millions of U.S. lives.

mancerayder 7y ago
To add fuel to the fire, you could have mentioned the initial response from the executive branch: "It's basically like the flu." Over two weeks ago I was correcting people who are otherwise intelligent but "executive branch supporters" to use a potential euphemism, to get their elder parents outside of the city. One of these friends has someone close to them in the ICU on a respirator as I write this. Are they any less supporters of the executive branch? I think you already know the (depressing) answer.
foobiekr 7y ago
China bought us eight weeks of ramp up time? Was that before or after suppressing information about the issue for almost two months including getting WHO to claim there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission in January?
- ireflect 7y ago
  After

mancerayder 7y ago

It took a very long time to get started. Check the history using the news headlines as your timeline. The Federal government rejected non-US tests/guidelines, while the CDC worked on a test. The test didn't work. The U.S. State of Washington had a solution, but the Federal government rejected it. Meanwhile some countries were conducting tests like crazy and were able to do some initial containment. In The U.S. we continued to go to the beach (Trump country), we went to farmer's markets (DNC country), and neither U.S. political culture made any effort to involve the authority figures to force citizens to stay apart. Because Freedom. Nice job, U.S. I write this holed up in the U.S. city with the most infections and deaths at the moment.

jdkee 7y ago
Stay safe. This too shall pass.

vkou 7y ago

> The US is currently testing ~100k people each day: Given how many people are still sharing their stories of "I am symptomatic, and I can't get tested, because I'm not literally dying in hospital", I daresay, we are not doing a good enough job of it.

JohnTHaller 7y ago

It's way too late for widespread testing to stop the initial big spread. We missed that window thanks to lapses in leadership, technical mistakes, and bureaucratic nonsense. Statisticians and doctors estimate that 600,000 to 1,200,000 are already infected.