1/ Turn around times for COVID testing are surpassing 7 days which makes them useless to containment. We hit the max lab capacity for testing at ~10% of what's needed. Previously there were supply or access point limitations, but lab capacity is harder to expand.
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2/ CDC recommends the rationing of tests for symptomatic patients as we did in March. This is a bad idea. Asymptomatic testing is far more valuable for containment since symptomatic patients should be assumed positive and therefore isolated. So we need that capacity.
3/ It's frustrating that we are dealing with these predictable issues only when things break. Clinics like ours can invest in lab technicians and equipment to process samples in-house, but the required CLIA certification takes ~9 months.
4/ Obviously, we need some standards. But reducing the regulatory hurdles of lab permitting would go a long way. For ~$1 billion, the government could even finance converting the 5k clinics that offer PCR testing into full-stack testing centers. This could expand capacity by 5x.
5/ If we want to have a chance in getting back to any semblance of normalcy, we need to start planning these things way ahead of the time. As in we need a plan today about how on earth we will vaccinate 300 million people every year.
6/ U.S. is not going to be good at central planning any time soon. Our best bet is a public/private partnership to plan, coordinate, and execute on a nationwide scale.
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