I saw a Twitter thread from someone in public health explaining that the test kits are indeed now flowing but that there are still logistical and regulatory hurdles to be cleared in the processing of the tests.
I heard the Florida Surgeon General (I think?) speaking over the radio, he said something along the lines of, ‘the virus is really dangerous for the elderly in nursing homes, and when an elderly patient is discharged from the hospital for pneumonia etc, the nursing homes don’t want to risk taking them back in the absence of a negative test. Unfortunately the federal CDC guidelines are too strict so we can’t use federal resources to test these people. That’s why we encourage hospitals to work with commercial labs to test all of these high risk patients.’
~Max
Federal agencies are hobbled by a variety of rules. (In some cases the rules were legislated to deliberately hobble the agency.) Because of this, a 10% cut in staff may cause more than a 10% cut in performance: the legislated functions, however useless, still have to be performed.
Other reasons why cuts in agency budgets have an over-sized effect on agency performance are (a) replacement of “political appointees” who form the highest level of management, and (b) the distrust of and disbelief in science which infects the highest levels of the present Federal government.
Two years ago at SDMB we saw posts to the effect “Budgets have been cut and the government is still toddling along. Can’t see any difference. Ha ha ha.” But it turns out that it would have been useful to keep some agencies, including CDC and FDA, in fit form.
Twitter is not what I would call a useful source of information. I’ve been listening to my governor and the people who are actually doing the work. It’s quite impressive what the state is doing and how much cooperation they’re getting from the Federal government. Virtually all of the red tape is getting cut on the Federal side when asked for by the State. Simple things like re-certification for health care workers. We’re already using the drive-through testing procedure. It’s ramping up nicely.
The logistical thought put into this is impressive on all levels. From the creation of a certified test to mass production was swift and we’re already testing a preventative shot for the virus. This was fast tracked using super-computers which cut research time down from months to days.
The test kits may well be out there and available, but actually getting one approved and administered is another story altogether. Guidelines may vary by state or area, but I’ll go with my area in the Southeastern US. My area has had zero official diagnosed cases, which sounds pretty good, until you read the guidelines for even getting a test:
No one has been tested positive in my area. You cannot get tested unless you’ve been in contact with someone who has tested positive. No one has tested positive, because they can’t get tested! So that feedback loop is closed…
This administration is wholly responsible for the totally incompetent federal response, including a lack of tests:
“In late January, President Trump’s economic adviser Peter Navarro warned his White House colleagues the novel coronavirus could take more than half a million American lives and cost close to $6 trillion”
“So first H1N1 infection in US was on April 15, 2009. Within 2 1/2 weeks, Obama had declared a public health emergency, approved medication, released a test, asked Congress for funding. A vaccine was ready in five months. Americans are dying because Trump did none of this.”
The Trump administration had plenty of warning about this, but their corruption and incompetence meant they failed to act. Thousands are dying, and more will die, because of their incompetence and corruption.
You have to be a celebrity or a tiger.
Isn’t Tiger a celebrity?
<golf clap>
Well done!
In fairness to Trump, Navarro is a right wing kook that only has a job because Jared Kushner brought a book he wrote on Amazon and became intrigued by his ideas. Navarro should not be near public policy decision making and no one should listen to him, ever.
It is supremely ironic and telling that the one time he was right about something just happened to be the one time Trump ignored him.