WEBVTT - How California Failed at Mass Coronavirus Testing 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:04.280 It's Tuesday. I'm oscar A Mirrors from the Daily Dive 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:09.920 podcast in Los Angeles, and this is Reopening America. California 0:00:10.000 --> 0:00:13.920 is largely closing again amid a rizing coronavirus cases. Governor 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:17.160 Gavin Newsom has ordered once again the closure of indoor 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:21.320 dining and limits on gyms, churches, hair salons and other businesses. 0:00:21.800 --> 0:00:24.599 And as cases go up, testing continues to be a 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:27.360 problem to get under control. From the very beginning of 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:29.920 the pandemic, the state fell behind and has been struggling 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:34.280 to keep up. There was problems with current infrastructure, supply shortages, 0:00:34.520 --> 0:00:37.960 and it led to difficulties in contact tracing too. Emily 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:41.600 bomb Gardner, reporter for The l A Times, joins us 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:44.960 for California's failure at mass testing. Thanks for joining us, Emily, 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:48.199 Thank you glad to be here. As we continue to 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:52.720 progress our way through the coronavirus pandemic, states have reopened, 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:56.080 cases are surging. It seems like we're taking a step 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:59.440 back in a lot of ways. California is one of 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:02.080 those state that is seeing a huge surge in cases. 0:01:02.120 --> 0:01:04.440 You know, Florida, Arizona, Texas, those are all other ones, 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:08.200 but California is largely closing again amid the spike in 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:14.759 coronavirus cases. The governor, Gavin Newsom has announced new statewide restrictions. Basically, 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:18.360 indoor operations need to close. This is indoor dining and bars, 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:22.360 family entertainment, zoos and museums. Also, gym's are gonna have 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:25.720 to close again, churches, hair salon's, malls, other businesses. I mean, 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:28.399 it is a complete step back on this. And this 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:31.480 is just one month after we reopened everything on June twelve, 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:35.800 So it's really tough there. And there's so many things 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:38.440 in this people going out and whatnot. But one thing 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:41.280 that we always come back to is testing and how 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:44.680 difficult testing has been. We've seen longer lines for testing, 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:48.240 longer waits for results again. But Emily, you wrote an 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:52.760 article about how California failed the mass coronavirus testing. There 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:55.160 was an early lag. We were playing from behind and 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:57.920 we were never able to really catch up. Tell us 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:00.440 a little bit about that, Emily. So what are looking 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:04.640 at today was born from many mistakes leading up to 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:07.120 this moment. I think it's pretty easy to look back 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:09.760 over the past month and attribute what we're seeing right 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:13.680 now to the reopenings. But in reality, the issues stem 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:16.720 from much further back in the early stages of this. 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:20.680 For example, it was federal restrictions that really limited California's 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:22.960 ability to get a handle on this. It was federal 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:26.560 restrictions on who could be tested the really narrow criteria 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:29.760 back in January and February, and that trickled over the 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:32.920 last several months through several sort of cascading steps that 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:34.800 led for this to get out of control. And I 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:37.520 just want to put into context for people the reason 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:41.040 that testing is so important. It's not just an individual 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:43.880 test result that tells you whether you should isolate. The 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:46.640 reason it's so important for containing the outbreak is for 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:50.120 contact tracing, something you've probably heard lots about, but right now, 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:53.200 if the testing does not scale up, it's simply impossible 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:56.160 to identify which people are continuing to spread the virus. 0:02:56.320 --> 0:02:59.799 So testing is really the central cornerstone for solving a 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:02.000 iceis like this. You know there's a lot of people 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:04.760 that question, oh, well, it only has figures that point 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:07.040 in time, and that's true, but as you mentioned, you 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:09.000 have to nail it right when it's happening, so you 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:11.720 can do that contact tracing tell the proper people to 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:15.280 start isolating and hopefully limit a big spread. You actually 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:18.959 started your story off with a brief example of what happened. 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:21.679 The Times identified a third flight that was coming into 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:24.760 l a X, where public health officials really didn't say anything. 0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:27.120 They didn't alert travelers that they were at risk for infection. 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:29.160 This was, you know, in the early stages of all this, 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:31.760 and you tell about the husband of the family returned 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:34.960 from China. The family started getting sick, but they didn't 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:37.520 get tested. They moved down into their community. Then people 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:40.200 at their school, their kids school, got sick, and it 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:42.640 became this cluster right there, and they couldn't do it 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:45.520 because the family couldn't get tested. This is a family 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:47.880 who even now will tell you they don't know whether 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:50.120 coronavirus is what they were infected with. This was in 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:53.640 the early stages when the respiratory symptoms were not distinguishable 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:56.200 from the flu, and they don't know. But they tried 0:03:56.400 --> 0:03:59.480 harder than most families I can imagine, trying to get 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:01.960 a test, to be responsible and to stay away from 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:04.480 the community. In fact, they were self isolating by choice 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:07.200 in their home before this was ever something that officials 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:09.480 asked them to do. So just as to show you 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:12.400 that members of the public were eager to prevent this 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:15.040 from spreading and to participate in whatever way they could, 0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:17.200 But it was a lack of direction and the last 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:19.800 coordination from the top, both at the federal level and 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:22.240 also at the state level, that allowed this to sort 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:25.359 of spiral to a point where people lost the ability 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:28.400 to sort of take autonomy over over decisions and keep 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:31.960 this virus from spreading. So as in the early stages 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:34.360 of this, the virus was starting to spread, we really 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:36.440 didn't get a handle on the true number of it. 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:39.040 And then what happened with the labs because this is 0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:41.520 another critical pardon We heard a lot of this story 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:44.440 in the past, but you actually lay out the chronology 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:46.120 this so well. That's why I wanted to talk to 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:49.960 you about this. The labs were facing shortages of supplies. 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:53.320 The demand was increasing. It's something that's happening right now 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:56.120 as we speak again, So tell us how that was going. 0:04:56.760 --> 0:04:59.080 There's a couple of different infrastructures you want to take 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:01.960 note of here. The first is public health laboratories. Those 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:05.200 are the government funded laboratories across the country and across 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:08.080 the state that are funded by the government. That's important 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:12.080 because those specific laboratories have been crippled for years. One 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:15.359 fourth of all of California's public health laboratories have closed 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:18.400 in the last two decades. So we're talking about laboratories 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:22.320 who had zero money, very thin staff, totally unprepared for 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:24.880 something such as a pandemic or really any type of 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:28.560 biological emergency. They've been pleading for funding for a long time, 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:31.360 but until a crisis occurs, it's hard to convince officials 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:33.200 that this is something that they need to be preparing 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:35.960 for financially. That's one side of the story. Of course, 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:38.440 as you know, right from the White House down, they 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:42.120 did acquire lots of support and help from commercial laboratories 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:45.040 such as QUEST and Lab Corps around early March, which 0:05:45.120 --> 0:05:47.560 many people hoped would be a major turning point, and 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:50.720 in some ways it was because testing was expanded drastically, 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:54.000 but the limitation that was placed on commercial companies was 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:57.400 just a physical one. There's only so much supply across 0:05:57.440 --> 0:06:00.360 the world, and many many countries were demanding the exact 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:03.080 same things from the supply chain at the exact same time, 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:08.200 so specific types of plastics, specific supply carrier fluids, three agents. 0:06:08.240 --> 0:06:10.440 I'm sure you heard lots about chemical re agents. So 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:13.080 the whole world is demanding something that there's a physically 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:15.920 limited amount of, and so no money can really buy 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:19.280 a solution to that problem. We were hearing about supply 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:22.640 shortages all across the board. Testing obviously was one personal 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:27.200 protective equipment. Everybody was requiring the same materials, and you 0:06:27.200 --> 0:06:29.920 know it was just creating that increased shortage there. And 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:32.960 you just continue a little bit more on the expanded 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:36.039 testing you mentioned in here. States such as New York 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:38.880 expanded a lot of testing the screen every nursing home 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:41.960 patient and California didn't have that means, and we know 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:44.240 that about half of the deaths in California are from 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:48.000 those facilities. So that's another unfortunate effect of this, but 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:50.800 also why it's so important. If we were able to 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:54.640 identify and isolate those people, then maybe so many deaths 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:57.120 wouldn't have occurred. This is where you see a fork 0:06:57.160 --> 0:06:59.400 in the road between places like New York City and 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:02.280 places like California. New York City was able to do 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:06.440 things like that to really overcome barriers in specific hotspots 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:09.320 or clusters. They would put cluster busters, as they're called. 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:12.800 These investigators who zero in on specific super spreaders and 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:15.360 try to really just create a ring around them to 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:18.120 isolate the infections from spreading outside of it. That was 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:21.440 not done effectively in California, and there's a whole variety 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:23.640 of reasons for that. It would be very difficult and 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:26.560 perhaps unfair to try to pin it on one specific reason. 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:29.880 But the outcome of that is that California was unable 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:33.720 to focus in on testing specifically in these facilities where 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:36.080 the vast majority of deaths were occurring. And that was 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:38.160 the project that they agreed to do. Even l a 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:41.600 county specifically agreed to test every staff member and every 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:44.720 resident in these guild nursing facilities, and even as of 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:47.679 early June, they had not completed that project. So lots 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:52.280 of sluggishness marking the California process. Sluggishness is a great word. Here. 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:54.960 The backlog. Now, this is the next part of it. 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:58.400 And one of the people who spoke to I laughed 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:01.120 because it's such a funny memory. But in this case 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:03.160 it's not so funny obviously. But they said that this 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:07.840 deluge of specimens, this backlog resembled that accelerating conveyor belt 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:10.840 of confections on the classic chocolate factory episode of I 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:13.560 Love Lucy. Just everything backing up and not being able 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:16.080 to catch up. That's kind of what happened after that. 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:18.720 That's what lab workers and lab officials describe it as 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:21.160 looking like the one that that's the specific woman that 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:24.400 you're speaking about is a very high ranking lab representative 0:08:24.440 --> 0:08:26.920 for a hospital system, and she piled those samples into 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:29.280 her own car and drove it to another laboratory to 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:31.440 try to get them tested. So this is sort of 0:08:31.480 --> 0:08:34.520 a prime example of the way that the bureaucracy sort 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:37.199 of broke down the system that was planned c that 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:40.000 was already two things that had failed her to the 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:42.480 point where she had to drive the samples herself. Personally, 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:44.800 I mean, good for her for wanting to get those 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:47.520 things done, but man, that is that is really tough there. 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:51.240 So this leads us all back to contact tracing and 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:55.439 why that's so important. Everything's backed up, we're not identifying 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:59.320 fresh cases, the new cases that are critical because those 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:02.079 people maybe don't know they're still owed in the community 0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:05.640 infecting others. And contact tracing. I mean, right now we 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:09.559 have one thousand, seven hundred contact tracers for more than 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:12.920 ten million residents. That's nowhere near enough. I mean, if 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:14.520 you were to compare this to what we saw in 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:17.120 the beginning when you had dozens of contact tracers, to 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:20.000 a case that would never be replicated right now, certainly, 0:09:20.160 --> 0:09:22.240 but you do hope that your staff is strong enough 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:24.720 and broad enough that you're able to very quickly react 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:26.840 to cases. I mentioned this earlier, but I want to 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:30.640 mention it again now. The speed of testing impacts contact 0:09:30.679 --> 0:09:34.280 tracers greatly, because even Curative Curative is an example of 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:38.640 a very strong, popular company, the tech startup from San 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:41.440 Francisco that did a great great deal of testing in 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:44.199 l A County. L A County abandoned using that company, 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:46.480 and one of the reasons that I was told by 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:49.560 a spokesperson for the county was the lag and test results. 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:51.120 And you know, if you if you have a lag 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:53.800 such as forty eight hours, you've lost the window in 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:57.040 which you can go identify the cases contact before they 0:09:57.080 --> 0:09:59.600 continue to spread. So we're talking about a very quick 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:01.640 turner on that you need in test results in order 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:05.160 to adequately carry out your contact tracing with your strong 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:09.079 and large staff and enforcement. We know is another hurdle there. 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:12.280 So I want to get to where we are now 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:16.320 we're still lagging behind testing. We've seen the stories of 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:20.200 longer lines, longer wait times. Obviously after the holidays things 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:22.560 kind of started blowing up, but once again we have 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:26.720 the shortages of swabs, the reagents, the materials we need, 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:30.640 and then also they're starting to scale back certain testing 0:10:30.640 --> 0:10:33.920 and certain areas again and imposing stricter guidelines for that. 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:37.040 Some of that is the communication failure. Some of the 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:39.760 test sites you're referring to are the underutilized sites. So 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:42.839 in some areas of the state, specifically rural areas and 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:46.640 underserved inter city areas, we're a major focus for Governor 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:49.800 Nuisance's plan for rolling out testing, for expanding testing to 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:52.840 communities where the virus wasn't being detected very quickly in 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:55.360 the early days, and you know, of course that kind 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:58.120 of work relies on good public communication. In some of 0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:01.400 those regions, there was questions over whether getting tested would 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:04.920 be an issue regarding your immigration status, questions regarding whether 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:07.240 it would be costly if you didn't have insurance, and 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:10.440 of course coronavirus testing is free across the state, and 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:13.200 officials do claim that regardless of your immigration status, they 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:15.160 want you to get tested. That there won't be any 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:18.560 negative consequences for you for doing so, but that's not 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:21.320 being communicated well enough to the public, at least that's 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:24.199 what the numbers suggests. Because of these locations, testing is 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:26.640 still low, the demand is low, and so the state 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:29.439 has decided to go ahead and roll back those locations 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:33.120 and use the funding and the support elsewhere. California is 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:35.520 just one state. This is the story that we're telling here, 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:38.120 but this is kind of a problem that's been dogging 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:41.840 other states as well, probably different circumstances, but still the 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:45.880 overall importance of testing is so high and not everybody 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:47.439 has been able to get it right. So I mean, 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:49.760 it's something that really needs to be looked closer at. 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:52.800 And obviously the same thing testing and contact tracing needs 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:56.280 to be improved across the board. Emily bomb Gardner, medical 0:11:56.320 --> 0:11:58.240 reporter at the l A Times, thank you very much 0:11:58.240 --> 0:12:04.160 for joining us. Seeing you very much, him Oscar Ramirez, 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:07.800 and this has been reopening America. Don't forget after today's 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:09.360 big news stories. You can check me out on the 0:12:09.400 --> 0:12:12.679 Daily Dive podcast every Monday from Friday, so follow us 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:15.320 on I Heart Radio or wherever you get your podcast.