This article for example was on the CNN front page, explaining that the major bottlenecks are test swabs and the required reagents and describing a specific FDA action which the governor of Ohio thinks would solve his problems.
The US was disastrous at testing initially, but now they are doing a lot of tests (several million). Unfortunately given the stage they are at (infections widespread, still no national lockdown, some states opening up again because they think it's all over), it's too late for test and trace.
> some states opening up again because they think it's all over
This is unequivocally not why some states are preparing to relax the so-called "safer at home" orders. Waiting until "it's all over" was not the goal of safer-at-home. Flattening the curve in order to prevent an immediately overwhelmed healthcare system was the goal. In multiple US states, the curve is acceptably flattened (or is expected to be in the next few weeks), and hospitals have plenty of available capacity. Those states are going to continue encouraging physical distancing, good hygiene, etc. while allowing closed non-essential businesses to resume limited operations.
> Waiting until "it's all over" was not the goal of safer-at-home.
Someone should tell that to the Italian authorities. At least until recently, some public statements seemed to inch in that direction ("zero new infections"), although more recently they realized that this is hardly possible at this point (especially if the estimates of the actual vs effective cases are true - talking about at least one order of magnitude).
I'm watching Italy/Spain with great interest at this point as both are loosening restrictions (after going through the same sort of hell as New York). If they don't see a new bump up in a few weeks for them, it means prevalence is far higher than we think in those countries (good news for them).
So far in Italy nothing will change until May 3rd. But the government is in total chaos over this (mainly because they're afraid of death themselves...). Lots of very unpractical ideas to keep distancing from so-called experts, too.
I guess we'll have to see what happens. Personally, although I'm very aware of the risks and will prepare accordingly, I'll be glad if I can finally get out of this isolation.
If you haven't even started the curve (as many of these states haven't), then you're not flattening it by using stay at home for a short time then relaxing it.
IMO loosening restrictions without really aggressive testing and case tracing is going to undo lots of good work by other states by allowing the virus to spread, but time will tell.
On a per capita basis yes, but the US has done more tests than any other country. Once the US doubles testing capacity again it will be on par with other large countries.
I guess after their bandits have stolen testing kids destined to other countries just like the bribed people with suitcases of dollars get masks enroute to various European countries.
I am hoping for the best for the US, but I am quite offended by how the US is scrambling to undo its own mistakes by steamrolling everybody else.
What this effectively means though is that we are still tightly scoping who can get tested in the US. My mom is a primary care provider in the DC suburbs, and their hospital system is still limiting tests to medical providers and first responders. People who "obviously" have Covid-19 are just treated, and mild cases are sent home without testing.
Sure. On a per capita basis the US is ahead of SK. To reach Germany levels the US will need 8M+ tests. That’s a large percentage of all tests that have already been done worldwide. Unfortunately a large country like the US (similar to countries like China and India) is going to run into production/technology constraints.
The US dropped many balls and started late with ramping testing in particular, but now the ramping is happening and just takes time. There was also no way the US could test enough people using the original set of tests that simply took too long. New technology had to be developed.
> Unfortunately a large country like the US (similar to countries like China and India) is going to run into production/technology constraints.
A large country has a lot of people to test, but also a lot of people to manufacture and perform the tests. So that argument doesn't work for me. Especially when we're talking about the richest country in the world.
Now, if the test making and executing is done by a single centralized organization, it does make some sense. Which is why that way of doing things is an anti-pattern.
I've been watching quite a lot of US mainstream media these days and I can confirm that this is not true.
For all of MSNBC's faults, their anchors have been repeating testing like a broken record. They even mention how much they sound like a broken record but that testing is simply the most important thing in reopening, and that the US is doing very little of it.
They and others discussed the issue enough to make your original statement false, including questions like "Why isn't testing ramping up?". That's the point I wanted to make. I'm not really looking to find timestamps and links for you when you haven't even done a cursory search before stating that no one was talking about testing.
One problem with the death of journalism is that no one is even reporting on this.