WEBVTT - Why It Takes so Long to Get Coronavirus Testing Results

0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.720
<v Speaker 1>It's Wednesday, April one. I'm Oscar Ramirez from the Daily

0:00:03.760 --> 0:00:06.560
<v Speaker 1>Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is your daily

0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:11.880
<v Speaker 1>coronavirus update. As COVID nineteen testing capabilities ramp up and

0:00:11.960 --> 0:00:14.440
<v Speaker 1>companies are coming up with new tests, why does it

0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:17.360
<v Speaker 1>still take so long to get results? First, it is

0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:20.360
<v Speaker 1>a multi step process. Once a sample is taken, it

0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:22.520
<v Speaker 1>needs to travel to a lab, then it needs to

0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:26.239
<v Speaker 1>be processed, and different circumstances and processing will lead to

0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:31.520
<v Speaker 1>different turnaround times. Julie Appleby, senior correspondent at Kaiser Health News,

0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:34.400
<v Speaker 1>joins us for the steps involved in testing and new

0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:36.960
<v Speaker 1>ones on the way. Thanks for joining us, Julie, Thanks

0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:40.080
<v Speaker 1>for having me. A lot has been made about testing

0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:43.839
<v Speaker 1>throughout this whole coronavirus pandemic right now, as everybody is

0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:47.640
<v Speaker 1>clamoring to get tested, we're seeing serious backlogs on this.

0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:50.680
<v Speaker 1>Still it still takes a long time, despite a bunch

0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:53.320
<v Speaker 1>of new tests coming out. Besides new companies working on

0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:56.200
<v Speaker 1>tests saying that you know, we can get results in uh,

0:00:56.240 --> 0:00:58.640
<v Speaker 1>you know, as little as minutes to a few hours,

0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:01.680
<v Speaker 1>there's still a lot of apps that are involved in

0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:04.080
<v Speaker 1>all of this, and that's why things are taking so long.

0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:06.360
<v Speaker 1>So Julie tell us a little bit about this. Take

0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:09.360
<v Speaker 1>us behind the scenes that what this testing looks like, right,

0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:11.000
<v Speaker 1>and it does take a long time. As we've seen,

0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:12.520
<v Speaker 1>people are being told, you know, you have to wait

0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:14.520
<v Speaker 1>five or six or seven days in some cases to

0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:17.320
<v Speaker 1>get a test. So why is that? So let's back

0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:19.600
<v Speaker 1>up a little bit. We had some problems initially when

0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:23.360
<v Speaker 1>the first CDC test came out. Those were resolved. More

0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:27.080
<v Speaker 1>and more labs now have approval to run these tests,

0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:30.560
<v Speaker 1>and larger labs and the hospital labs, ETCeteras are and

0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:32.959
<v Speaker 1>as you mentioned, we're starting to see some quicker tests,

0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:35.160
<v Speaker 1>but it still takes some time. There's a number of

0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:37.600
<v Speaker 1>steps in the process. Like first you get your nose

0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:39.759
<v Speaker 1>swabs right with one of these things, and they put

0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:41.760
<v Speaker 1>that swab in a little tube and they send it

0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:43.840
<v Speaker 1>off to the lab and the lab then has to

0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:49.040
<v Speaker 1>do some pretty sophisticated analysis of this sample, right to

0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:51.200
<v Speaker 1>figure out do you have COVID or not and that

0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:53.960
<v Speaker 1>and real quick. That's the first step, actually getting swabbed

0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:55.840
<v Speaker 1>and then sending it to a lab. That could take

0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:58.400
<v Speaker 1>up to a day depending on where the lab is,

0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:00.960
<v Speaker 1>how far it is from where you got test. That's correct.

0:02:01.000 --> 0:02:02.680
<v Speaker 1>You've got to think about transit time. There's about a

0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:05.520
<v Speaker 1>day lag there. Now, there are some places that are

0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:07.840
<v Speaker 1>doing testing on site, So if you're at a large

0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:11.400
<v Speaker 1>academic medical center, chances are they might have their own

0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:15.040
<v Speaker 1>testing capability at depth center, but they're probably limiting the

0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:18.200
<v Speaker 1>testing too in patients and to their hospital staff. So

0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:20.560
<v Speaker 1>the reason they can get a result back a little

0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:22.280
<v Speaker 1>quicker there is because they just do it in house,

0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:24.799
<v Speaker 1>so they don't have that transit time. But even when

0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:27.000
<v Speaker 1>they do it in house, there's a bunch of steps

0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:29.600
<v Speaker 1>that have to be done. They have to put them

0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:32.080
<v Speaker 1>in a machine. Generally, there's there's some manual work that

0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:35.320
<v Speaker 1>the technician does. They have to extract some RNA and

0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:37.800
<v Speaker 1>amplify the DNA, and there's all this science kind of stuff.

0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:40.480
<v Speaker 1>Some of it's done manually, but a lot of places,

0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:43.679
<v Speaker 1>these big commercial labs have these machines that run them automatically,

0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:46.080
<v Speaker 1>so they're faster. They can process more samples at a

0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:49.239
<v Speaker 1>time in a piece i road. I talked to pathology

0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:53.120
<v Speaker 1>lab at mid Star Medical Center in Georgetown here in Washington,

0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:56.480
<v Speaker 1>d C. And they can run nine three samples at

0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:59.280
<v Speaker 1>a time in their machine. And they can run about

0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:02.040
<v Speaker 1>three of those icles a day. Okay, so that's why

0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:03.600
<v Speaker 1>they do it in the house at this hospital, but

0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:05.720
<v Speaker 1>they're kind of limited in the number they can do.

0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:08.440
<v Speaker 1>Whereas if you go to a test site and they

0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:11.280
<v Speaker 1>might send it off to a large commercial lab that's

0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:14.880
<v Speaker 1>that can process twenty or thirty thousand of these a day,

0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:16.880
<v Speaker 1>so that might be faster, but then you've got to

0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:19.359
<v Speaker 1>transit time and they've got a big backlog. So these

0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:22.640
<v Speaker 1>are all the reasons why it can take a number

0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:25.480
<v Speaker 1>of days to get results back in some cases, and

0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:27.720
<v Speaker 1>in other cases you might get an answer back sooner.

0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:30.160
<v Speaker 1>And one of the other difficulties is that there's so

0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:32.720
<v Speaker 1>many people that want to get tested. They want to

0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:36.080
<v Speaker 1>have peace of mind to know whether they do not

0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:39.040
<v Speaker 1>have it, or they want confirmation if they're getting they

0:03:39.040 --> 0:03:40.640
<v Speaker 1>have some type of symptoms. They want to know they

0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:42.760
<v Speaker 1>have it so they can know what to do. And

0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:45.240
<v Speaker 1>in a lot of these places, it's like almost a

0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:48.160
<v Speaker 1>sign like no Watkins welcome kind of thing, because you know,

0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:50.560
<v Speaker 1>some of these sites have to you have to follow

0:03:50.600 --> 0:03:52.920
<v Speaker 1>a line. Basically, you know, somebody coming off the street

0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:55.120
<v Speaker 1>just can't get their tests and get it done. They

0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:59.280
<v Speaker 1>need to prioritize these things to healthcare workers, to people

0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:03.120
<v Speaker 1>that really have bad symptoms and are in hot need hospitalization.

0:04:03.560 --> 0:04:05.560
<v Speaker 1>And that's true. That's because we don't have enough test

0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:07.560
<v Speaker 1>in the United States right now. They're working on ramping

0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:09.440
<v Speaker 1>that up. As you mentioned, We've we've got some new

0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:11.600
<v Speaker 1>test kits out there starting to go out that that

0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:14.320
<v Speaker 1>can get results back quicker, and those are expected to

0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:16.440
<v Speaker 1>be sort of point of care. When you walk in

0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:18.760
<v Speaker 1>your doctor's office or the emergency room, you might be

0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:21.400
<v Speaker 1>able to get a result back in five to thirteen minutes.

0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:23.640
<v Speaker 1>But that just got a proof, you know, Friday night,

0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:25.599
<v Speaker 1>and they're they're going to start shipping them. They're hoping

0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:27.840
<v Speaker 1>to ship fifty thousand of them a day. But there's

0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:29.520
<v Speaker 1>a lot of people like you mentioned that just want

0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:31.840
<v Speaker 1>that peace of mind or you know, if you've got it,

0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:34.440
<v Speaker 1>you really need to isolate yourself. And so it's good

0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:36.160
<v Speaker 1>to know do you have it or not, But we're

0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:38.320
<v Speaker 1>not there yet. Yeah, the test that you were just

0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:40.120
<v Speaker 1>talking about that we can get the one that just

0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:42.359
<v Speaker 1>kind of got to prove this past Friday, the President

0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:44.680
<v Speaker 1>was talking about that one. Um, you know, just trying

0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:46.280
<v Speaker 1>to get people hope really that you know, you can

0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:49.280
<v Speaker 1>get tested and get a result very quickly, but even

0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:51.520
<v Speaker 1>that still needs to get ramped up. Those little test

0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:54.200
<v Speaker 1>kits need to be made and sent out, and there's

0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:56.320
<v Speaker 1>a lot of stuff that goes into it, and and

0:04:56.320 --> 0:04:59.640
<v Speaker 1>we're hearing a lot about shortages specifically with healthcare workers

0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:03.840
<v Speaker 1>with personal protective equipment, masks, all that stuff, But these

0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:06.880
<v Speaker 1>testing kits also suffer from some of those shortages. The

0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:10.600
<v Speaker 1>chemical agency using those kits, these swabs to get the samples.

0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:12.760
<v Speaker 1>There's a lot of things that are in short supply

0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:14.919
<v Speaker 1>right now, and all of that needs to get ramped up.

0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:17.760
<v Speaker 1>That's correct, and that's why some of these groups, the

0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:19.560
<v Speaker 1>big lab testing groups and some of those are saying,

0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:23.320
<v Speaker 1>let's limit the testing right now and to these high

0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:26.960
<v Speaker 1>priority people because there are these shortage and asks kind

0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:29.200
<v Speaker 1>of backing up manufacturing in some cases. I spoke with

0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:31.880
<v Speaker 1>a manufacturer who was, you know, working on making sure

0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:33.680
<v Speaker 1>he could get all the right little chemicals to put

0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:35.600
<v Speaker 1>in it and and the swabs and that kind of thing.

0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:38.000
<v Speaker 1>And he has multiple suppliers, but he's on the phone

0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:40.840
<v Speaker 1>working this thing to make sure that happens. And there's

0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:44.240
<v Speaker 1>just a big demand for these products right now, you

0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:46.000
<v Speaker 1>keep hearing it a lot. We're all in this together.

0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:49.040
<v Speaker 1>We have to practice the social distancing. There's a bit

0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:51.680
<v Speaker 1>of patients that goes into this that unfortunately a lot

0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:54.080
<v Speaker 1>of people don't have because you know, you hear scary

0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:57.839
<v Speaker 1>words like pandemic and whatnot, and people are legitimately concerned.

0:05:57.839 --> 0:05:59.760
<v Speaker 1>So but it is kind of this patients that we

0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:02.440
<v Speaker 1>have to practice with all of this as well, right,

0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:04.080
<v Speaker 1>And more and more of these are getting approved. I mean,

0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:05.799
<v Speaker 1>just in a couple of days since I wrote my story,

0:06:05.800 --> 0:06:09.000
<v Speaker 1>there's been a couple more tests approved under these emergency

0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:12.200
<v Speaker 1>use authorizations by the FDA, So more tests are coming

0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:15.840
<v Speaker 1>on the market. There's another entire kind of test which

0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:17.720
<v Speaker 1>tries to figure out if you have immunity if you

0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:20.360
<v Speaker 1>already had the disease, and those are gonna We're gonna

0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:23.560
<v Speaker 1>start hearing more about those. They're not available widely here

0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:25.679
<v Speaker 1>in the United States yet, but other countries are working

0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:28.840
<v Speaker 1>on that, getting folks tested to figure out, hey, maybe

0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:31.239
<v Speaker 1>it's safe you go back to work. You've had the disease,

0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:35.560
<v Speaker 1>you presumably have immunity now. Julie Appleby, senior correspondent at

0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:38.000
<v Speaker 1>Kaiser Health News, thank you very much for joining us,

0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:42.680
<v Speaker 1>Thanks for having me. I'm Oscar Ramirez and this has

0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:46.239
<v Speaker 1>been your daily coronavirus update. Don't forget that. For today's

0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:48.040
<v Speaker 1>big news stories, you can check me out on the

0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:51.320
<v Speaker 1>Daily Dive podcast every Monday through Friday, so follow us

0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:53.920
<v Speaker 1>on I Heart Radio or wherever you get your podcast