There are indications that a big part of our testing shortfall is our hodge podge of processing labs -- Individual city & state heath dept labs, hospital labs of all sizes & capabilities, university labs, private company labs, fed agency labs. Coordinating them must be like herding cats.RedFromMI wrote: ↑Thu Apr 16, 2020 2:49 pmhttps://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white- ... n-n1185516Widespread testing a barrier for reopening country as White House seeks plan
White House aides scramble to ramp up testing in the U.S., but there's no clear plan yet.
Just think what the result would have been if the administration did this say in early February, when Trump seemed to think his ban on some China travel would fix everything...The White House is exploring ways of drastically increasing coronavirus testing in the U.S., as President Donald Trump’s aides scramble to put measures in place that might make it feasible for him to meet his goal of reopening the economy in parts of the country by May 1, according to four people familiar with the efforts.
Multiple ideas are under consideration for increasing diagnostic testing and testing for coronavirus antibodies as well as how to target those tests to geographic areas and specific industries to open as much of the economy as possible, these people said.
One proposal that’s been considered would involve the federal government partnering with major technology companies in an effort aimed at increasing testing capacity to at least 3 million tests a day, according to three people familiar with the plan. Some administration officials, however, cautioned that amount was unrealistic and said different types of testing would be strategically deployed.
A senior administration official said the White House is “close” to making an announcement on a plan.
Another idea that’s been discussed would use the Defense Production Act to rapidly scale up testing, according to one person familiar with the discussions, though officials played down the idea given that Trump has been resistant to more consistently deploying that presidential power since he would rather use the law as leverage to get companies to take such steps.
The push to ramp up testing reflects an acknowledgment by some of the president’s advisers that, despite his insistence that testing is working well, there are problems with access and that significantly increasing the number of tests per day will be critical if the economy is going to reopen. Trump said he will announce guidelines on Thursday for reopening the economy.
We're not a compact consolidated country like Germany or S Korea where you can call them all together in a train station & figure out a plan.
In the daily briefings, Dr Birx is diplomatic & tries to stay constructive, but you can see her frustration simmering just below the surface.