How US Coronavirus Testing Failed So Badly

The CDC and FDA have really screwed, more than I could have possibly imagined. It’s a long saga of incompetence, arrogance, and neglect.

First, the CDC decided to make their own test kits rather than using those provided by WHO. The tests didn’t work, leading to a huge delay in the start of testing, an incredible shortage.

But worse, they banned other organizations from making their own tests. So there wasn’t even anyone to pick up the slack.

This response is unforgivable, and has cost many lives and financially ruined millions.

The CDC creates bottlenecks by demanding doctors get permission before administering tests, most test requests are being denied, and they’re not allowing many laboratories that are equipped for testing to carry out this testing: labs all over the country have been trying desperately to get approval from the FDA to use their testing facilities for COVID, and are being denied over and over again because they are not certified as a clinical laboratory under regulations established by the centers for medicare and Medicaid services.
Furthermore the FDA is shutting down all kinds of innovation that would make testing pervasive testing available to all Americans.

Many organizations including the Gates foundations started offering home-testing kits that will allow people who fear they may be infected to swab their noses and send the samples back for analysis, which decreases the risk of exposing infected people to others.

Recently, the FDA banned at home testing, forcing startups who had already collected samples to destroy these samples.

The list of appalling behavior goes on, and banning competition, stifling innovation, and delaying emergency approvals has turned what could have been a manageable outbreak into an uncontrollable disaster that is killing people and financially devastating millions.

My only hope is that health care institutions, biotech startups, and non profits continue to innovate and succeed in going around the..