As President Donald Trump called the nation “in good shape” to handle COVID-19, a cache of emails released by officials in Washington state show that top public health authorities feared gear shortages and doctor safety in the early epicenter of sickness and deaths.
The president’s statement frames the data in a way that doesn’t accurately represent the status of the American response to COVID-19.
Maryland, Ohio and others are reporting only positive tests, which skews tracking and an understanding of how the virus spreads.
If you or your company have useful supplies and want to donate them, here are some answers to questions you might be asking.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave huge cities roughly the same number of test kits as some rural spots, which crippled efforts by health officials to contain the virus.
Nationwide, testing for coronavirus is ramping up. But the supply of specialty swabs needed to collect potential coronavirus specimens can’t keep up with demand, creating a bottleneck in testing capabilities. So two top manufacturers are working with U.S. and Italian governments to increase production.
Closing K-12 schools is part of a broad strategy to limit public interactions and slow the spread of COVID-19 cases. But the decision is far from easy, with conflicting science about how effective such closures are weighed against the massive disruption to families’ lives.
Drs. Keith Jerome and Alex Greninger fast-tracked a test for the deadly new coronavirus weeks before it began spreading in the U.S. Their work has been key to detecting community transmission and ramping up the nation’s testing capacity.
The COVID-19 outbreak has spawned confusion among health officials, doctors and the public, especially for people who fall into the gray area for testing and deciding whether they need to quarantine themselves. Where to turn for answers about isolation and quarantine varies by locale. All this means agencies are sometimes delaying needed advice and giving people incorrect information.
There is currently no central coordination of the supply of protective garb and masks in U.S. hospital inventories. A CDC project wants hospitals to share that information for the good of all.
