[ColdNoMore]

Originally Posted by loribellitt

No. When WHO surveyed countries needs for testing kits, US said 'no thank you' as we wanted to be in control of that aspect; award our own contracts. When first kits were rolled out into the system, they were faulty. There's currently an investigation on what the hell happened there. Pretty clear: it's still about money and rewarding contracts folks, not about humanity.

Originally Posted by golfing eagles

Source???????

Sure.

Here's a good, legitimate and scientific...source.


Science Magazine (click here)

Speed is critical in the response to COVID-19. So why has the United States been so slow in its attempt to develop reliable diagnostic tests and use them widely?

The World Health Organization (WHO) has shipped testing kits to 57 countries. China had five commercial tests on the market 1 month ago and can now do up to 1.6 million tests a week; South Korea has tested 65,000 people so far. The U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in contrast, has done only 459 tests since the epidemic began.

The problems have led many to doubt that the official tally of 60 confirmed cases in the United States is accurate. “There have been blunders, and there could be an underlying catastrophe that we don’t know about,” says epidemiologist Michael Mina, who helps run a microbiology testing lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “It’s been very complicated and confusing for everyone with almost no clarity being provided by the CDC.”

[Northwoods]

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[Northwoods]

Originally Posted by Bucco

That is what I mean when I say we just did not work with them at all, and their tests have worked where used.

"US cooperation with WHO was late also"

Quoting a forensic scientist today on Twitter"..

"The decision to not accept the testing kits from the World Health Organization in early February after 60 countries had done so will prove to be a deadly mistake on an order of magnitude that we probably can’t even imagine."

Why does this have to be "political?" (What we didn't do). 20/20 hindsight is so easy.
I really wish people would talk about what we can do to mitigate this situation... share best practices people have heard...
Our focus should be on what we can do to minimize the impact of this virus. Pointing fingers does nothing to help us cope with this situation.

[Velvet]

I agree with Northwoods. We need to pull together to overcome this virus.