Testing Cluster F#$k in Texas

[Laura PourMeADrink]

https://www.texastribune.org/2020/03/17/texans-still-clamoring-coronavirus-tests-state-promises-more-soon/
Snip
Texas appears to be lagging behind other populous states in testing for COVID-19, but trying to determine how many tests have been given is as confusing as figuring out how to get one.

Gov. Greg Abbott is promising that the state will dramatically ramp up coronavirus testing, but as of Monday night, there were still no concrete figures about how many have been tested so far — and there was no shortage of complaints from Texans who can’t get one.

So far, public and federal labs have tested only 439 people for the virus, according to figures released late Monday by the Texas Department of State Health Services. That does not include “hundreds” more tests conducted by private labs, officials said. That presumably leaves the number somewhere north of 700 people, but The Texas Tribune could not pin down officials on a precise count.

Meanwhile, sick patients like Patrick Parker, a University of Texas research assistant, are still being turned away. Parker said he tried in vain Sunday to get a test at a drive-in center run by Baylor Scott & White Hospital in North Austin. He lost $40 — and a little bit of faith in response efforts for the new coronavirus — in the process. Other Texans exhibiting symptoms told similar stories in interviews with the Tribune, but not all wanted to be identified.

Parker said Monday he’s been sick for 12 days with what appear to be COVID-19 symptoms — fever, sore throat, shortness of breath and “respiratory distress and pain.” He said he was “embarrassed to say” that he was moving around in public for the first week of his illness, and then he self-quarantined after realizing the disease was spreading in Austin.

[Wounded Bear]

1. This is what happens when you elect anti-gov't Repubs...

[duforsure]

2. I suspect they've been given orders

Hide or give out false numbers for him, or face the consequences from him. Red state governors are being pressured to help trump I suspect, and never trusted Abboutt for anything, just like with that last Texas governor Perry.

[MagickMuffin]

3. And this weekend 1000's of people passed through DFW International Airport

Stuck there for hours packed in like sardines. No one knows if anyone of those people is a carrier. Not one of them has been tested and most were coming back from Europe.

[Igel]

4. It's why the CDC doesn't keep any count they claim is accurate.

Not everybody must report under pain of death, so many don't. You get lower limits, not actual counts.

Learn to live with uncertainty. I'm told that liberals/progressives are able to do this but conservatives really can't handle uncertainty.

The official tests are still subject to CDC protocols. Blaming Texas for those is like blaming Washington State for them. It assigns responsibility for those not in charge; the only takeaway is the inference that those not responsible must actually be responsible. In other words, it produces misinformation.

Given the lack of testing and the lack of ability to even know who to test at times, just look at the death numbers. Those are pretty good, albeit with a fuzzy "more or less 20 day" lag from actual infection. Even new cases are reported had additional fuzziness about them--it's hard to know when infection took place. But every extrapolation back from death numbers, even throwing out network-intensive deaths as outliers, shows a far higher count than tests would indicate. And that goes for countries held up as testing models.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

5. Trump could immediately issue an executive order

requiring all testing and health care facilities to report.