Hacker News Reader

Comment by adrianN | Hacker News Reader

I heard that China tests literally everyone who shows up a a doctor's office with symptoms of a common cold. Why isn't the US testing more people?

View on HN

They f*ed up. But I don't understand why they refused to use the testing kits provided by WHO.

https://www.axios.com/cdc-lab-coronavirus-contaminated-6dc97...

Because CDC didn't authorized the local/state to perform typical RT-PCR testing[1] for COVID-19 until a few days ago and their guideline for testing COVID-19 super strict probably due to funding and they have been bottlenecked in delivering results. We know it is very expensive in the U.S. for such testings (so it's likely related the fundings are not ready, given that Trump just recently announced budget with significant cuts to CDC and WHO) and U.S. is obviously NOT prepared.[2][3]

However, CT scans are a much better, cheaper and economical way in clinical settings to confirm COVID-19[1]. Results come out in minutes and in negligible costs vs. thousands of dollars for RT-PCR testing. Chinese government's website has the most comprehensive guidelines and treatments recommendations on their official website.[4]

Washington State today is like the early January of Wuhan, where infections aren't officially confirmed even though it's been outbreak for weeks.

[1]: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200226151951.h...

[2]: https://www.wired.com/story/covid-19-will-mark-the-end-of-af...

[3]: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/29/health/coronavirus-prepar...

[4]: http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/2020-02/19/content_5480958.htm

> However, CT scans are a much better, cheaper and economical way in clinical settings to confirm COVID-19[1].

Unfortunately CT scans have their own risk for the patient that traditional blood tests don't have.

> (so it's likely related the fundings are not ready, given that Trump just recently announced budget with significant cuts to CDC and WHO)

Announcing funding cuts isn't the same as actually cutting them. The CDC budget won't be reduced until congress approves it. [1]

1. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-cut-cdc-budget/

That's likely false information. China had a severe limitation on testing kits through most of the upward surge in the virus outbreak.

They have 20, 50, 100, 500 million test kits? No they do not. They're testing everyone? No they are not.

Why isn't the US testing everyone? There are nowhere near enough test kits to do it. There are not enough test kits to go around anywhere on the planet, not even remotely close.

Right now China can test 1.6 million a week, and now that they've gotten that capacity they barely need it. 1.6 million a week wouldn't be enough to screen everybody with a sniffle in the US, but it would get us most of the way.

I dont know where you heard that number. It doesn't seem reasonably accurate.

This article gives that number:

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/02/united-states-badly-...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com