• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Saturday, July 12, 2025
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home National

Flawed Coronavirus Test Strategy Contributed to US Spread: Experts

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
03/10/20
in National
US President Donald Trump speaks on his administration's response to the coronavirus.

US President Donald Trump speaks on his administration's response to the coronavirus. Photo: AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Faulty test kits for the novel coronavirus coupled with a diagnostic strategy that initially targeted too few people allowed the disease to spread beyond U.S. authorities’ ability to detect it, health experts have said.

Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on Monday, epidemiologists from Johns Hopkins University and Stanford University said the failings had contributed to the virus taking root in communities across the country.

More than 800 cases and 28 deaths have been detected in the U.S., according to a Johns Hopkins University tracker.

As of Sunday, 1,707 Americans had been tested, according to Business Insider, citing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

South Korea, which announced its first case on the same day as the US, had tested more than 189,000 people, the publication added.

The authors of the JAMA report wrote that the only test initially authorized was one developed by the CDC.

It relied on the same technology as one authorized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and deployed around the world – except that a fault meant the CDC kit was returning inconclusive results.

There’s no way this is entirely by accident. This is what happens when the President creates a culture of misinformation, where telling him bad news can get you fired. pic.twitter.com/3Y7oyd3JQ6

— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) March 10, 2020

It was not until February 29, the date of the first US death and more than a month after the first confirmed US case, that the Food and Drug Administration lifted a ban on state laboratories developing their own kits based on the WHO’s tests.

‘Don’t Overcorrect’ 

The CDC announced Monday it has testing capacity in 78 state and local public health labs, with 75,000 kits available nationwide and more by mid-March.

“When people need a test, they can get a test. When the professionals need to test more people they can get the tests,” President Donald Trump told a White House news conference.

His administration had initially promised to have one million kits in place by the end of last week.

“Adopting broader testing criteria and allowing use of a wider range of tests would have been helpful in identifying the first U.S. cases and containing the spread,” said Michelle Mello of Stanford, a co-author of the report.

“Manufacturing problems like the one that arose with CDC’s test are always a risk, but the fact that CDC put all its eggs in that one basket made the manufacturing snafu highly consequential,” she wrote on her university’s blog page.

The CDC was initially only testing people with known exposure, meaning a Californian patient on a ventilator was denied the test for five days, the patient’s doctors said. The criteria were changed as a result of this case.

Mello also pointed to several inaccuracies in White House communications on the epidemic – from declaring that containment efforts were “close to airtight” to claiming a vaccine could be ready within three to four months.

“The public messaging from Washington about the seriousness of the problem has been neither consistent nor accurate, and I worry it may have led Americans to take fewer steps to prevent community transmission than we should have,” she said.

The authors argued against overcorrection, however, saying that health services would be quickly overwhelmed if everyone with a cough or fever – or exposure to sick patients – demanded a test.


More on the Subject 

UN Appeals for Funds to Shield Refugees from Coronavirus

ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

Donald Trump
Opinion

Fact vs. Fiction: The Trump Administration’s Dubious War on Reverse Discrimination

by Kevin Cokley
June 18, 2025
A Black Lives Matter mural in New York City.
Opinion

Fuhgeddaboudit! America’s Erasure of History

by Stephen J. Lyons
April 2, 2025
President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shake hands during a meeting in New York on September 25, 2019
World

Zelensky Says ‘Unpredictable’ Trump Could Help End War

by Staff Writer with AFP
January 2, 2025
US President Donald Trump inspects border wall prototypes
National

Trump Confirms Plan to Use Military for Mass Deportation

by Staff Writer with AFP
November 18, 2024
US President Donald Trump displays a sign saying 'Trump digs coal' during a rally.
National

Gore Says Climate Progress ‘Won’t Slow Much’ Because of Trump

by Staff Writer with AFP
November 26, 2024
Putin talks to Trump in Hamburg
Opinion

From Roosevelt to Trump: The Complicated Legacy of Personal Diplomacy

by Tizoc Chavez
November 15, 2024
Next Post
American soldier in Afghanistan.

UN Sec. Council Approves US-Taliban Deal as Afghan Gov. Agrees to Release POWs

Relatives of Mohammad Mudasir, 31, who died in the recent sectarian riots, mourn during his funeral in New Delhi

India Is a Secular Nation, So Why Aren't Muslims Being Protected?

Recommended

UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese

UN Says US Sanctions on Expert Sets ‘Dangerous Precedent,’ Must Be Reversed

July 11, 2025
Women in Afghanistan wearing a blue burqa

ICC Seeks Arrest of Taliban Leaders Over Persecution of Women

July 9, 2025
Kenya, Nairobi, 2024-07-16. Protesters in the streets

Nairobi Tense as Kenya Marks Democracy Uprising

July 7, 2025
President Donald Trump

Trump Wins ‘Phenomenal’ Victory as Congress Passes Flagship Bill

July 4, 2025
University students march in protest towards the Istanbul Municipality in Sarachane as they demonstrate against the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu in Istanbul, Turkey, on March 21, 2025.

‘Remember Charlie Hebdo!’ Protesters Seethe at Istanbul Magazine

July 2, 2025
US President Donald Trump

US Senate Edges Towards Vote on Trump’s Divisive Spending Bill

June 30, 2025

Opinion

Donald Trump

Fact vs. Fiction: The Trump Administration’s Dubious War on Reverse Discrimination

June 18, 2025
Tens of thousands of protestors shut down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on Saturday, April 5, 2025, protesting the Trump administration's abuse of the separation of federal powers as well as the deep cuts to governmental services overseen by presidential advisor Elon Musk.

Civil Society Is Holding the Line. Will Washington Notice?

June 17, 2025
A Black Lives Matter mural in New York City.

Fuhgeddaboudit! America’s Erasure of History

April 2, 2025
Bust of Deputy Rubens Paiva in the Chamber of Deputies

Democratic Brazilians Are Still Here

March 18, 2025
A woman from Guatemala

Dispatch From Central America

January 28, 2025
US President Donald Trump

Dear Trump Supporters: Is This the America You Wanted?

January 28, 2025
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post