Posted on 04/30/2020 3:50:47 AM PDT by SilvieWaldorfMD
When Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) announced the purchase of 500,000 coronavirus tests from South Korea last week, he called it “an exponential, game-changing step forward” in the state’s effort to get more people tested.
The dramatic story drew notice from Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and a dismissive swipe from fellow Republican President Trump.
But more than 10 days after the chartered Korean Air plane landed, Maryland has not allowed access to the tests kits, much to the frustration of local, state and federal leaders seeking to alleviate community testing shortages.
"None of the kits have been deployed, and no one knows when they will be," Harford County Executive Barry Glassman (R) said Tuesday afternoon. "In the environment that's out there, that need is not being met."
In conference calls with local and federal officials over the past two weeks, the Hogan administration said the tests were hung up by regulatory hurdles and shortages of other supplies that have throttled testing capacity nationwide, according to multiple people who participated.
Hogan publicly described a different reality on Wednesday, when he outlined for the first time how he will use the tests. He said he would prioritize universal testing in nursing homes and other hot spots, such as an outbreak at a poultry plant on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
The governor said the kits would also bolster testing for health-care workers and first responders. As a fifth priority, he would expand the broad, community-based testing experts say is critical to easing shutdown restrictions.
“As soon as we got the tests, everybody was like, ‘Can we have 100,000 of those tests?’ ” Hogan said of local leaders. “First of all, the state is going to maintain those tests. We’re not just going to send them off to people.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Regulatory hurdles y’know
Bingo...antibody tests are more useful for the general population at this point.
all me wacky but I think a scandal is brewing regarding the non use of the HCQ.
“Nothing dumber than attempting to test everybody in the country as some seem to want.”
Your point is well taken, but it goes even further. Most of the RAT governors are saying that “new cases” have to go down. How do we get new cases - by testing!
If you wake up with the sniffles and call your doctor and demand a test,he may or may not help you get one. But regardless, he will tell you to quarantine at home until you are better, and to go to the hospital if you get worse. The test only runs up the numbers so the media can continue the panic.
It would be best to not volunteer for any testing. This will drive the number of confirmed cases down.
Your comment on TP had me wondering. Since, evidently, COVID can be detected in excrement/urine, why not send human stool samples for processing and detection. Veterinarians do this all the time for Fluffy and Rover, at least. Yes, may take longer, but...
Testing for antibodies.
NO need to convince me. I avoid the doctor like a plague.
Maybe a person taking long term hydroxychloroquine for lupus or other disease does not need the additional drugs in order to keep them from catching the coronavirus. Maybe the addition of azithromycin and zinc help after a person is already infected with the virus.
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