Testing for COVID-19 in US: “Tests are being rationed”, and outlook for the future

[Anonymous]

We have a personal protective equipment crisis in our country. Your doctors and nurses have almost no masks and gowns to take care of you. There are none for sale. The national stockpile is inadequate, and has not been released. Please read the twitter account created by our 45,000+ provider group to allow members to post anonymously. If you have masks, gloves, wipes, please donate to your nearest hospital or outpatient clinic.

https://mobile.twitter.com/covid19docs

Please share.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do Bill Gates, Bezos, and Musk get together and donate to mass produce and distribute tests? They have the money and distort network to actually make it happen.

^^Don't not do...anyway they all could come together to find a solution fast if they wanted to. They each have been pretty quiet about this issue unless I'm missing something.

[Anonymous]

Qiagen is holding this up? Sh&t go back to old school methods!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
One issue they are having right now is that they have enough tests but no RNA extraction kits from Qiagen. I used to do those in my lab, so I know the procedure. RNA extraction is a step in preparing the patient samples for the Covid-19 test. The lack of RNA extraction kits means that samples cannot be prepared for Covid-19 testing, hence the backlog. Qiagen is ramping up production, but it will take a while.

State labs said they could buy other RNA extraction kits from different suppliers, but that this would mean their staff needed some time to be trained on the new kits. Which is ridiculous, given the urgency. I didn't have that kind of leisure given to me at my university.

So just because most media sources don't drill down to identify where issues are in the multistep process that is Covid-19 testing, it doesn't mean that this process is easy and simple. It's not. There are many reagents, many supplies, many places in the chain that can pose problems. It's not just "here's a WHO or CDC box with test tubes, everything you need is here".

I appreciate this explanation very much. However, it only makes it more stunning that we didn't start preparing earlier!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do Bill Gates, Bezos, and Musk get together and donate to mass produce and distribute tests? They have the money and distort network to actually make it happen.

Bill Gates has.

Building at-home tests for the Seattle area.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/gates-funded-program-will-soon-offer-home-testing-kits-for-new-coronavirus/

And he funded the Flu Project that initially discovered the outbreak in Seattle.

[Anonymous]

CA doing 8000 tests / day.
Quest and Labcorp each doing ~5000 / day.

Mass General / Brigham, Mayo Clinic, Yale, NY Presby, UW, Stanford, Cleveland Clinic, Wash U, Hopkins, UPMC all ramping up. UW at 2k/day, Stanford+UCSF 1k/day.

Mayor Bowser, where are DC medical research centers on this?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:CA doing 8000 tests / day.
Quest and Labcorp each doing ~5000 / day.

Mass General / Brigham, Mayo Clinic, Yale, NY Presby, UW, Stanford, Cleveland Clinic, Wash U, Hopkins, UPMC all ramping up. UW at 2k/day, Stanford+UCSF 1k/day.

Mayor Bowser, where are DC medical research centers on this?!

Links?

[Anonymous]

Testing: Celebs vs normal people

https://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/famous-people-normal-people-tests?utm_source=dynamic&utm_campaign=bffbsoml&ref=bffbsoml&fbclid=IwAR0Qmqk-IDS9sNpKu9-FBcORJ9TG6HX6WXAaWmS5CKPlyoI3R1lLuEgXkjc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
One issue they are having right now is that they have enough tests but no RNA extraction kits from Qiagen. I used to do those in my lab, so I know the procedure. RNA extraction is a step in preparing the patient samples for the Covid-19 test. The lack of RNA extraction kits means that samples cannot be prepared for Covid-19 testing, hence the backlog. Qiagen is ramping up production, but it will take a while.

State labs said they could buy other RNA extraction kits from different suppliers, but that this would mean their staff needed some time to be trained on the new kits. Which is ridiculous, given the urgency. I didn't have that kind of leisure given to me at my university.

So just because most media sources don't drill down to identify where issues are in the multistep process that is Covid-19 testing, it doesn't mean that this process is easy and simple. It's not. There are many reagents, many supplies, many places in the chain that can pose problems. It's not just "here's a WHO or CDC box with test tubes, everything you need is here".

Thank you for the explanation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Testing: Celebs vs normal people

https://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/famous-people-normal-people-tests?utm_source=dynamic&utm_campaign=bffbsoml&ref=bffbsoml&fbclid=IwAR0Qmqk-IDS9sNpKu9-FBcORJ9TG6HX6WXAaWmS5CKPlyoI3R1lLuEgXkjc

No surprises here. The elite always go first.

[Anonymous]

Why can’t they use the blood test that is available in China? No need for PCR.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a personal protective equipment crisis in our country. Your doctors and nurses have almost no masks and gowns to take care of you. There are none for sale. The national stockpile is inadequate, and has not been released. Please read the twitter account created by our 45,000+ provider group to allow members to post anonymously. If you have masks, gloves, wipes, please donate to your nearest hospital or outpatient clinic.

https://mobile.twitter.com/covid19docs

Please share.

Jesus.

What a cluster f&^%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do we STILL not have tests? This is ridiculous.

Why’s chilly do it when you could just lie and say you are? I mean, duh!

We have enough tests! Anyone who wants it can get it! No shortage of ventilators! The economy is terrific! All my decisions are perfect!!!!

[Anonymous]

Now 14300 positive in the US. Up from 9500 yesterday. Three days ago it was 3700.


https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/


That’s 5000 in one day. Tomorrow it will be 22,000-25,000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Now 14300 positive in the US. Up from 9500 yesterday. Three days ago it was 3700.


https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/


That’s 5000 in one day. Tomorrow it will be 22,000-25,000.

No it won't, we can't test that many!
What a disgrace.