Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

South Korea has been running 10k tests per day since February.

The US has run less than 10k in total. That is a colossal failure.



> The US has run less than 10k total. That is a colossal failure.

Question claim in fact, although it is persistently being repeated everywhere constantly, for propaganda purposes. Three of the major private lab companies indicate they'll be at a 10,000 combined per day test capacity before the week is out.

The US doesn't know how many tests have been run in total nationally. A large volume of tests have been distributed to hospitals and private labs around the US, the majority of which do not report their numbers back to a central authority (such as the CDC). That's a failure of centralized reporting and organization, due to the US having dozens of separate healthcare systems which the Feds do not control.


> the majority of which do not report their numbers back to a central authority (such as the CDC).

State infectious disease registries are absolutely receiving ELRs (electronic lab reports) and transmitting case reporting back to CDC and data is currently moving for novel coronavirus as well.

The term you are looking for is NEDSS/NETSS reporting.

> Today, all 50 states and Washington, D.C., use NEDSS-compatible integrated surveillance information systems to send case notifications to NNDSS.

https://wwwn.cdc.gov/nndss/nedss.html


> Three of the major private lab companies indicate they'll be at a 10,000 combined per day test capacity before the week is out.

So you think we should celebrate that after a month to get ready, we'll have finally caught up with a country 1/7 our size in testing capacity?

The US is currently testing the smallest percentage of its population of any developed nation: https://twitter.com/nick_kapur/status/1238156462708477958




Consider applying for YC's Winter 2026 batch! Applications are open till Nov 10

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: