Dr. Anthony Fauci called federal coronavirus testing “a failing” and the Wall Street Journal followed up with details on CDC and FDA blunders.
The blunders appear to have stemmed from a “government knows best” mentality that has hobbled the private‐sector response. Governments tend to spin messages, erect barriers to private efforts, and act with overconfidence yet fail to deliver. These same sorts of problems exacerbated the damage in other major disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina discussed here.
With coronavirus testing, the federal government appears to have made numerous mistakes. According to the Journal article, government hindered private testing because of concerns about accuracy, yet the CDC’s own test was inaccurate. The CDC told the states its testing capacity was adequate, but that was proved wrong as demand soared. Private labs were required to use the CDC’s testing method, but that resulted in depleting the materials needed for that test. Private labs were dissuaded from pursuing testing by officials who said they had it covered. Finally, the FDA put up bureaucratic barriers to private test development, such as requiring special permissions.
Thankfully, the government has changed course and the CDC and FDA are fixing these problems. America is counting on federal health agencies to succeed in this crisis, so I hope some broader lessons are learned. Top‐down controls, misinformation, barriers to private efforts, and treating the private sector as a bit player are common mistakes in disaster response.
Read more at https://www.cato.org/blog/government-failure-coronavirus-testing
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