Coronavirus is frightening.
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I’m working from home, practicing “social distancing.” Experts say it’ll help “flatten the curve” so fewer people will be infected simultaneously. Then hospitals won’t be overwhelmed. But the infection rate grows. Doctors and
Private companies might have offered better tests and more of them, but that wasn’t allowed. The World Health Organization even released information on how to make such tests, but our government still said no. Instead, all tests must go through the government’s cumbersome approval process. That takes months... Or years. Why weren’t there enough tests? Because our government Hundreds of labs had the ability to test for the virus, but they weren’t allowed to test. As a result, doctors can’t be sure exactly where outbreaks are happening. Instead of quarantining just sick people, state governors are forcing entire states to go on lockdown. At the same time, many people who show no symptoms do have COVID-19. Without widespread testing, we don’t know who they are, and so the symptomless sick are infecting others. insists on control of medical innovation... A few weeks ago, the government finally gave up its monopoly and said it was relaxing the rules. There would be quick “emergency-use authorizations” replacing the months- or years-long wait for approval. But even that took so long that few independent tests were approved.
hospitals may yet be overwhelmed. It didn’t have to get to this point.
Coronavirus deaths leveled off in South Korea. That’s because people in Korea could easily find out if they had the disease. There are hundreds of testing locations – even pop-up drive-thru testing centers. Because Koreans got tested, Korean doctors knew who needed to be isolated and who didn’t. As a result, Korea limited the disease without mass quarantines and shortages. Not in America. In America, a shortage of COVID-19 tests has made it hard for people to get tested. Even those who show all the symptoms have a difficult time. Why weren’t there enough tests? Because our government insists on control of medical innovation... When coronavirus appeared, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made its own tests and insisted that people only use those CDC tests. But the CDC test often gave inaccurate results. Some early versions of the test couldn’t distinguish between coronavirus and water.
American Consequences
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