The reason that I posted this article is that it makes clear that, as is usual, there are multiple reasons why the testing got delayed to the point that it hurt this country's response to the virus in a major way. Some of it was Trump. His ego, concerns about how it would impact his re-election campaign, and his incessant need to use every opportunity to jab political opponents, especially at a time when we need to come together against a common threat, were disruptive to the response and set the wrong tone. No leader gets everything right in a time of a major national challenge, but Trump certainly got more wrong than right, IMO. That said, there were the usual built-in bureaucratic problems, combined with simple mistakes, at CDC and FDA that fouled up the development and distribution of tests. CDC, as is their usual mode of operation, decided to develop their own test rather than use ones developed elsewhere. Things went wrong with the one that they developed. FDA was at its usual bureaucratic best in refusing to approve the use of private sector tests due to concerns about inaccurate or fraudulent testing.
If you don't like Trump, and count me among those who don't, you get a chance next fall to make a change. At some point, there needs to be a look at all of the things that went wrong here. CDC and FDA need some changes to their policies. We need to develop national or state caches of medical supplies and ventilators. We need plans in place to convert buildings to emergency hospital use quickly. One thing that I think we will learn from this is that pandemics are likely to become more common in our modern world where people are constantly traveling. Mutations happen all the time in nature, but prior to the modern era, many times their impacts were more local. Now, an outbreak in one part of the world is carried around the globe in weeks. We need to plan better how we can deal with them. Quicker means of developing and distributing vaccines need to be found. We need better anti-viral medicines. Things like sheltering in place and self-isolation are sledgehammer techniques that can slow, but not eliminate viral illnesses. In the meantime, they destroy economies and damage the ability of the poorest among us to remain fed, housed, and able to be cared for. We've got some work to do when this is finally over.
