The Science Behind Coronavirus Testing, and Where the U.S. Went Wrong
America was never prepared for this
As has been widely reported, a major bottleneck in addressing the novel coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. is the extremely limited testing capacity. While South Korea has tested over a quarter million people, the U.S. has performed only 33,000 tests to date*, just three times South Korea’s daily testing capacity. Speculations about negligence, incompetence, and deliberate conspiracy have been floating around to explain this discrepancy. In reality, as is almost always the case, the factors impacting the U.S.’s ability to ramp up testing are incredibly complex. Complications include regulatory hurdles at the federal and local levels, shortages of supplies, equipment, and certified personnel, as well as technical challenges associated with the test itself.
Given these challenges, it may surprise you to learn that the coronavirus test is relatively simple, and operationally the same in every country. As a molecular biologist, I have run similar procedures hundreds of times. So with South Korea performing an order of magnitude more tests than the U.S., where did we go wrong? If the test is so simple that it can be performed in any molecular biology lab, why aren’t we routinely testing thousands of people every day? Why aren’t results available for…
