Why It’s So Hard to Get Coronavirus Testing in the U.S. Right Now
There are also still technical hurdles for some of the labs that are trying to run the CDC test. Smaller labs, including those at major hospitals, are struggling to meet some of the FDA’s approval requirements. For example, the technicians need to show that they have the technical and chemical expertise to perform the test properly to get a valid result both on a large number of samples as well as a range of samples types, including the most difficult type to work with, sputum .
Cohen notes that another challenge for some labs involves extracting the virus from the sample. The COVID-19 test actually picks up fragments of genetic material of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the illness, in the form of RNA, so pulling the virus out of the sample is critical. “The kit that the CDC sends, for example, includes [testing chemicals] but what it doesn’t include is the extraction needed to pull out the viral RNA,” he says. “That’s a big lift for some labs to do.
of COVID-19 infections in the country, and has recorded the highest death rate in the US from the disease. The couple and their two-year-old daughter live a mile from the long term care facility where nearly two dozen people have died of the disease. “Not only am I a cancer patient, but I live in the epicenter of this outbreak,” she says. “Absolutely I want to get tested and I want my whole family tested. My wife is young and female, so she is in the category that she could likely be positive and display no symptoms. We’re also not seeing an explosion of cases among children, so my [two year old] daughter could also be in that category. They could be silent carriers.
But when she saw her oncologist last week, Satterfield didn’t even bother asking for testing, because she knew that since she wasn’t showing symptoms, doctors wouldn’t likely prescribe a test. There just simply aren’t enough tests to go around, and that’s terrifying to Satterfield and millions of other Americans.Please send any tips, leads, and stories to
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