[martynpat]

you speak nonsense

[ficoguy]

Because you have too many government agencies. Obama Care had prohibited private companies from selling test kits for general public - Trump hand to executive order that one away. The CDC, who we pay taxes for and support, contaminated their test kits. Medicare would not pay - that had to be changed. And 8 agencies need to approve the final test kits. So red tape, bungling, regulations that no one knew were on the books...its not like Germany where Merkel says line up and everyone says "Jawohl!"

[TNLAKEPANDA]

When you eat some of these post on here you realize how many stupid people there are in TV.

From what I've heard in watching the daily briefings from the Governors and the President is the US has done more testing than all other countries combined. The government has been assisting local governments in acquiring ventilators and testing machines eventhough it's a local government's responsibility to do these things.

It's been stated that testing non symptomatic people is not an option for the entire population of America because you could test negative and go to the store and get infected 5 minutes later. Performing 350 million test is not a feasible solution.

If you have symptoms then get tested.

As far as most cases in the world is concerned, the more test you conduct the more you find. Other countries have way more cases than what they report because they aren't doing as many test.

Also, The US had hundreds of thousands of Chinese tourists flocking to America during the initial period of the pandemic before the border was closed to China. Over 430,000 Chinese travelers came to America the final two weeks before the travel ban was placed. Then they flew in from other countries until that was stopped.

Not all deaths are reported the same way. In America we report ever covid 19 patient death as related to the virus. Strokes, heart attacks etc are counted with our deaths from the virus. Other countries have different guidelines. Some poor countries will have hundreds of thousands of deaths but no testing so their death counts will be lower.

This information is out there.

[Mike193534]

Originally Posted by David Fletcher

The original post states America is richest country in the world. If ever a statement was wrong.

Perhaps the problem is summed up with that statement.

If Americans believe that, then I guess they believe anything.

Ranked: The Richest Countries in the World

[toeser]

Originally Posted by skarra

I don't get why the richest country in the world is at #42 on the tests/1M population chart (Coronavirus Update (Live): 2,628,469 Cases and 183,491 Deaths from COVID-19 Virus Pandemic - Worldometer). It is still very difficult to get a test weeks after we were promised they were available to everyone.

If we don't know where we stand re infections (the hidden threat), how can we make a sane decision that it's safe to go back to business as usual?

Hope is not a strategy. I've no confidence in what they're telling me - it is NOT safe to go back to "normal" until we get more testing done.

We are behind because of ridiculous bureaucratic rules by the FDA/CDC that mandated that tests must be developed by the CDC, plus the FDA would not approve foreign tests. In trying to develop a test, the CDC completely blew it in that their test did not work.

Finally, Trump directed the FDA and CDC to embrace the private sector and allow them into test development, but precious time had been lost. Many tests have now been developed, it's now about filling the supply chain.

Don't get too comfortable with testing being the solution, it isn't. We will never, ever test and retest all 330 million Americans. It just isn't practical or possible, so there will be some virus around for a long, long time.

[Jdunn]

Originally Posted by skarra

I don't get why the richest country in the world is at #42 on the tests/1M population chart (Coronavirus Update (Live): 2,628,469 Cases and 183,491 Deaths from COVID-19 Virus Pandemic - Worldometer). It is still very difficult to get a test weeks after we were promised they were available to everyone.

If we don't know where we stand re infections (the hidden threat), how can we make a sane decision that it's safe to go back to business as usual?

Hope is not a strategy. I've no confidence in what they're telling me - it is NOT safe to go back to "normal" until we get more testing done.

So sick of people with false information

[Bwolf1]

Originally Posted by skarra

I don't get why the richest country in the world is at #42 on the tests/1M population chart (Coronavirus Update (Live): 2,628,469 Cases and 183,491 Deaths from COVID-19 Virus Pandemic - Worldometer). It is still very difficult to get a test weeks after we were promised they were available to everyone.

If we don't know where we stand re infections (the hidden threat), how can we make a sane decision that it's safe to go back to business as usual?

Hope is not a strategy. I've no confidence in what they're telling me - it is NOT safe to go back to "normal" until we get more testing done.

I was tested at the Polo Field in The Villages. It was simple, quick, efficient and free. No problem getting it done, I signed up on line and the next day was tested. It took 5 minutes total. I drove in at 10:15 and was finished at 10:20. Results were emailed in 24 hours. I was not infected with the virus, my cough is from allergies.

[La lamy]

Originally Posted by toeser

We are behind because of ridiculous bureaucratic rules by the FDA/CDC that mandated that tests must be developed by the CDC, plus the FDA would not approve foreign tests. In trying to develop a test, the CDC completely blew it in that their test did not work.

Finally, Trump directed the FDA and CDC to embrace the private sector and allow them into test development, but precious time had been lost. Many tests have now been developed, it's now about filling the supply chain.

Don't get too comfortable with testing being the solution, it isn't. We will never, ever test and retest all 330 million Americans. It just isn't practical or possible, so there will be some virus around for a long, long time.

Agreed. The blood test to detect antibodies to COVID is what I really want. I feel I've had the virus, with a mild version of most of the symptoms. It would ease my mind to know I was able to fight it.

[mikemalloy]

Just a few observations I've made from reading articles. As written previously, the original testing was to be done by kits provided by the CDC. They were somewhat more complicated that other tests used worldwide and as previously noted, the CDC had contaminated part of the test resulting in false positives. Unfortunately this happened at a critical time when it was hope to contain the beginning infections. When private labs tried to jump in and do testing they were caught in a red tape maze that included proposals having to be submitted to the FDA by snail mail rather than email.
On thing that hasn't been mentioned is that the original tests had to be done by a health care worker taking a swab from the back of the nasal cavity. After doing the swabbing the worker than had to change the PPE that the worker was using so as to not infect the next person tested. It was time consuming and we has some shortages in PPE in the beginning. Testing at that point was limited to health care workers and those showing symptoms. Results weren't obtained like a home pregnancy test where you just dip a strip. The sample had to be transported to a lab and then individually tested. Doing large number of tests with these limitations is very difficult. Newer tests that allow an individual to self-sample and kits that give results in 15 minutes will greatly increase our capacity. So the initial problems were failures by our "medical experts" and government regulations. It appears that our current capacity is quickly increasing due to medical innovations and effective oversight.

[Tennisbum]

Originally Posted by Chatbrat

Testing is only a snap shot in time--you could be negative one day & positive 24 hours latter--the only thing that matters is a cure or better yet a vaccine--

What he said!!!! I feel fine, no contacts with known carriers, why get tested? Save it for the people who need it!

[ficoguy]

If you do more IQ testing, are you going to find any more geniuses or idiots? No. The bell curve tells it all - its called normal distribution. You do a reliable sample and then calculate your confidence factor via the coefficient of correlation. So you don;t need to test very person, dog, horse or cat to know which way things are headed. People feel like they are entitle to having a 3 inch swab stuck up their nose.

[Luvs21putt]

The number you are looking at is per million people. We have a LOT more people to test and they are cranking out tests as fast as they can but are limited by manufacturing supplies and lab technicians.

[Meloveday]

Remember who's driving the bus.

[Daxdog]

Lots of reasons for not testing, one reason could be you not need a test unless you are feeling ill, Second is people, can’t test you if there aren’t enough people that do the testing, can’t force them. And maybe like the Other person said what’s the point, you can test one minute, and be infected the next. Don’t worry we will get thru this. Hey here is something else worry about, people wearing masks wrong, not covering nose (dumb) and people wearing gloves. Do you know if you wear gloves you cross contaminate everything you touch. That means if you touch something at a store and then touch something else you just moved germs from one item to another.
Have a good day everyone