WEBVTT - As Coronavirus Cases Surge, Testing Shortfalls Are Leading to Long Lines Again

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<v Speaker 1>It's Wednesday, July one. I'm Oscar Ramires from the Daily

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<v Speaker 1>Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America.

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<v Speaker 1>It's happening again. As we moved to reopen the country,

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<v Speaker 1>cases are starting to surge and the demand for testing

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<v Speaker 1>is increasing. But testing shortfalls are causing long lines and

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<v Speaker 1>hard hit states such as Florida and Texas without a vaccine.

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<v Speaker 1>Testing has become the first line of defense, and delays

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<v Speaker 1>complicate everything. M a court healthcare reporter at Bloomberg News

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<v Speaker 1>joins us for how testing is hitting a snag again.

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<v Speaker 1>Thanks for joining us, Emma. Thanks. It seems that we

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<v Speaker 1>are back at it again some of the same bad

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<v Speaker 1>news we were hearing at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

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<v Speaker 1>We're starting to see cases rise across the country and

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<v Speaker 1>that's making people want to go get tested even more.

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<v Speaker 1>But as I mentioned once again, the whole country is

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<v Speaker 1>grappling with a shortfall of testing and we can't seem

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<v Speaker 1>to get over it, even though we are testing much

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<v Speaker 1>much more this time around. Emma, tell us a little

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<v Speaker 1>bit about it. The challenge here is, you know, in

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<v Speaker 1>the early days of the pandemic, right there was a

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<v Speaker 1>shortfall of testing, people couldn't get tested, and that proved

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<v Speaker 1>to be an impediment for other efforts to contain the

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<v Speaker 1>viruses spread things like contact tracing other public health work.

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<v Speaker 1>We're finding ourselves in a somewhat similar situation today, even

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<v Speaker 1>though testing capacity has expanded significantly from that early kind

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<v Speaker 1>of period. I think the best way to explain it

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<v Speaker 1>really kind of comes down to those two core ideas

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<v Speaker 1>of supply and demands. So testing supplies both swabs that

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<v Speaker 1>take you know, test sample to the sort of materials

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<v Speaker 1>that preserve it while it's transported to the lad to

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<v Speaker 1>the equipment that runs the test itself. Processes that test

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<v Speaker 1>these different parts of the supply chain have all come

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<v Speaker 1>under strain, you know, over the last couple of months,

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<v Speaker 1>and even though these aspects have been alleviated of our time,

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<v Speaker 1>they haven't been in high rely solved. Now, whether it's

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<v Speaker 1>even possible to solve it as a whole another question, right,

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<v Speaker 1>But even as you have these persistent problems around supply

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<v Speaker 1>and being able to supply test to the American public,

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<v Speaker 1>you also have demand getting really ratcheted up with the reopenings.

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<v Speaker 1>Now you have nursing homes trying to test all of

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<v Speaker 1>their employees. You have employers saying that they want to

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<v Speaker 1>maybe provide testing to their employees as well. You have

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<v Speaker 1>people who haven't even necessarily come into contact with someone

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<v Speaker 1>who has been infection wanting to get tested just to

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<v Speaker 1>be sure, right before they gather with members of their family,

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<v Speaker 1>for instance, or in social settings and things like that.

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<v Speaker 1>So all of these things taken together, got it out

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<v Speaker 1>of the problem, and we're starting to see that problem

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<v Speaker 1>coming out in these hot spot states that have begun

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<v Speaker 1>to emerge, like Texas, you know, like Arizona, working long

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<v Speaker 1>lines outside of urgent care centers. For instance, hospital I

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<v Speaker 1>spoke to in Houston said their lab had gotten a

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<v Speaker 1>double amount of testing volume in the prior sort of

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<v Speaker 1>weak plus. So these are problems that are beginning to

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<v Speaker 1>bubble up in these new focuses of the pandemics, these

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<v Speaker 1>parts of the country that are a new focus of

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<v Speaker 1>the pandemic. And unfortunately, I think with the trajectory being

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<v Speaker 1>what it is, you know, it sounds like these problems

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<v Speaker 1>are going to continue over time. You mentioned Texas specifically,

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<v Speaker 1>they have pretty robust setups for testing. I think they

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<v Speaker 1>converted a few high school football stadiums or something like that,

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<v Speaker 1>so that people can roll through and get tested, and

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<v Speaker 1>even then, you know, by midday, mid morning or whatever,

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<v Speaker 1>they've reached their capacity and they have to turn people away.

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<v Speaker 1>So what's it's translating to is really long wait times

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<v Speaker 1>to actually get tested and then longer wait times to

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<v Speaker 1>get those results back as well. And we're seeing the

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<v Speaker 1>cases surge throughout the United States and a bunch of

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<v Speaker 1>states are having to roll back the reopening procedures because

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<v Speaker 1>of all these surgeon cases. What's important to note here

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<v Speaker 1>is like in Texas in particular, we did some reporting

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<v Speaker 1>in that state, and you know, it wasn't just getting

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<v Speaker 1>into get the test, which in many places you have

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<v Speaker 1>to in text if you basically have to get an

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<v Speaker 1>appointment to get tested, So you might wait a week

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<v Speaker 1>or something like that just to go get tested, and

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<v Speaker 1>then at that point we're likely to see waits for

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<v Speaker 1>test results increase to you know, one of the big

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<v Speaker 1>trade groups that represents the big commercial abs here in

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<v Speaker 1>the US said basically, they're forecasting a real big surge

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<v Speaker 1>in demand in the coming weeks and they're expecting that

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<v Speaker 1>that made the lay test results. Importantly, when you wait

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<v Speaker 1>a long time for test results. I mean a week

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<v Speaker 1>is an extreme scenario, but even having to wait a

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<v Speaker 1>couple of days, that's an amount of time that maybe

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<v Speaker 1>if you're thinking, oh, I probably don't have COVID nineteen,

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<v Speaker 1>I can go about my life, I can go to work,

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<v Speaker 1>things like that. You know, that adds risk into the

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<v Speaker 1>equation basically, and so the longer you wait for test results,

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<v Speaker 1>the more likely this risk is going to compound. President

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<v Speaker 1>Trump has said a lot that we've built the biggest

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<v Speaker 1>testing system you know of everybody. The US process about

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<v Speaker 1>five fifty seven thousand tests each day on average over

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<v Speaker 1>the last week. But then the current outbreak, they say

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<v Speaker 1>that we need millions, two to four million tests a

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<v Speaker 1>day to really kind of track all of this stuff.

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<v Speaker 1>The burden is all on the states. They get limited

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<v Speaker 1>supplies and they have to allocate all that. So it's

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<v Speaker 1>kind of a whole ripple effect because it's tough to

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<v Speaker 1>keep that in track. And then beyond that, when it

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<v Speaker 1>comes to contact tracing, all these delays make it much

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<v Speaker 1>much harder to do all that contact tracing. As you

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<v Speaker 1>were just mentioning, people go about their business not getting

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<v Speaker 1>a test, and they can be infecting people and not

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<v Speaker 1>really know it. What's important to note is we already

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<v Speaker 1>have evidence in parts of the country that the virus

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<v Speaker 1>is spreading in a sustained way in the community. And

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<v Speaker 1>so this is a point where contact tracing systems, if

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<v Speaker 1>they're not already you know, established and robust, can easily

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<v Speaker 1>get overwhelmed. Um when you have really large numbers in cases.

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<v Speaker 1>For instance, I spoke with an official with UT system

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<v Speaker 1>and because who said, basically, you know, you have six

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<v Speaker 1>and four hundred new cases one day, and you keep

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<v Speaker 1>getting those kinds of members each day. You know, a

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<v Speaker 1>local health department just can't keep up right, They're gonna

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<v Speaker 1>get overwhelmed. And so I mean, ideally you wouldn't want

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<v Speaker 1>to get to this point. But when you have like

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<v Speaker 1>delays and test results, or you have for instance, aging

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<v Speaker 1>infrastructure where test results are getting reported by FATS, that

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<v Speaker 1>flows down the process, and that's kind of where we

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<v Speaker 1>are in the US. I mean, I don't think it

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<v Speaker 1>can be under emphasized at this point that we have

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<v Speaker 1>not invested in the kinds of infrastructure we need to

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<v Speaker 1>get this infection under control. But it's not too late.

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<v Speaker 1>You know, a lot of public health experts say we

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<v Speaker 1>can still take these kinds of steps. We can still

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<v Speaker 1>invest in public health infrastructure. We can still make more

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<v Speaker 1>robust systems for testing. We can test smarter. That's when

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of people have also said, maybe the focus

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<v Speaker 1>shouldn't be on testing everyone. Maybe we should focus on

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<v Speaker 1>the places where there's most likely to be transmission and

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<v Speaker 1>also be smarter about how we reopen. What are the

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<v Speaker 1>places in which the virus is most likely to sort

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<v Speaker 1>of run in the community that increasingly seems to be bars, right.

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<v Speaker 1>We've heard that become a big talking point coming out

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<v Speaker 1>of states where these hot spots of emerged. You know,

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<v Speaker 1>Texas closed the bars late last week. We've heard Florida

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<v Speaker 1>moved towards taking similar steps as well. So I think

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<v Speaker 1>there are some questions about if our infrastructure isn't up

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<v Speaker 1>to snow, are there ways we can tell our approach

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<v Speaker 1>in a better manner and a court healthcare reporter at

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<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg News, thank you very much for joining us. Thank you.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm Oscar Ramirez and this is reopening America. Don't forget effort.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's big news stories. You can check me out on

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<v Speaker 1>the Daily Dive podcast every Monday to Friday. So follow

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<v Speaker 1>US on I Heart Radio or where every gajure podcast