Stephen Rusckowski, chief executive of Quest Diagnostics, discusses the coronavirus at a White House news conference with President Trump on March 13.
But unfortunately for Quest — and other private players such as LabCorp — the growing capacity to detect cases was only as good as supply lines. And quickly, every step in the process showed strain.For tens of thousands of Californians to receive a coronavirus test, medical staff needed just as many cotton-tipped swabs — the “simplest piece” and yet the “No. 1” issue, said Dr.
But Qiagen, a top supplier, quickly fell behind. Patients in intensive care units waited more than a week for results; some nurses had to tell families that, in the pileup, the commercial labs had lost their relative’s samples entirely.Reagent manufacturing looked like having a garden hose on hand to fight a wildfire, said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
Earlier that month, the pileup at Quest had become insufferable; Dr. Ng had redirected samples to Alameda County’s public health lab. But their aging equipment delivered test results by fax; the head of labs at three hospitals and several clinics found herself relegated to watching for the “LOW TONER” light to illuminate on the printer.Issues compounded when the lab equipment’s test results could not be validated.
But when Urnov told nearby hospitals he could provide free testing and results in 48 hours, the hospitals declined, saying their electronic records systems were still entangled at Quest and LabCorp. The volunteers were stunned.“We said, ‘What? Are you kidding me?’ They have a direct link to a testing provider that has failed,” Urnov said. “There’s institutional inertia.”Fred Turner has always been entrepreneurial.
By early May, California had gone from 2,000 to nearly 40,000 tests per day. The Curative-Korva lab was running 10,000 of them.Dr. Zahn’s contact tracing team was back in action, and their caseload by late May was surging. Trading their gowns and gloves for phone lines and shared drives, tracers spend their days staring at computer screens glowing with the ever-growing lists of names.
This will go down as history's biggest to do about nothing and a cowardly mark against a generation that accomplished little of note.
jaketapper Also the nurses operating at the few drive through testing sites DO NOT have N95 masks due to an ongoing shortage. 🤯 Kevin_Faulconer ToddGloria LorenaAD80 toniatkins ToniD_SD ChrisWardD3 TheNickSerrano DrShirleyWeber
jaketapper California story seems complicated. I think the Arizona and Florida story is less so. Simply two ignorant Trump adoring Govs!
MalcolmNance GavinNewsom
The federal government “slow walked” testing because Jared convinced trump that tests and supplies would spook the stock market. Having a coordinated federal plan to allow other companies besides trump’s favorites (donors), Quest and Lab Corp, to test would have been helpful.
No ‘electrical fencing in Taiwan’. Self isolating people were checked by their cell phone location. If one were to ditch the phone at home and caught leaving home, he person was heavily fined. Taiwan.
maggieNYT But also : Trump lives for white privilege.
maggieNYT You misspelled 'Trump'
maggieNYT trump left all states out to dry. it's pretty damn clear where the real fault lies...
maggieNYT Gavin is a murderer
The inside is Cali wanted to fail. Cali wants to run this fraud.
RafaelGarciaI Don't worry California the mainstream media is keeping your secret
Hey LA times, this is from right around the time we had dIsAsTeR rEpORtEr ronlin writing articles about how asymptomatic patients were not infectious and community spread wasn't a thing so running marathons was fine
Allowed rioting, killed it's economy, etc.. This is the problem 👇
Eric and Gavin are morons
Great story! When this first started, I was so proud we were trying to get a handle on it. Just sucks it all go away from us. It's such a delicate balance.
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