COVID-19 testing
diagnostic testing for the respiratory illness COVID-19 and the underlying pathogen SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus
COVID-19 testing involves analyzing samples to assess the current or past presence of SARS-CoV-2. The two main branches detect either the presence of the virus or of antibodies produced in response to infection.
MarchEdit
- For some US allies, the fixation on words at a time when the international order was arguably facing its greatest challenge since the second world war encapsulated the glaring absence of US leadership. And that absence was illustrated just as vividly by news coverage of planes full of medical supplies from China arriving in Italy, at a time when the US was quietly flying in half a million Italian-made diagnostic swabs for use in its own under-equipped health system and Donald Trump was on the phone to the South Korean president pressing him to send test kits.
- Johnson's change of tack was to move finally towards lockdown, advising against mass gatherings and urging people to avoid clubs, pubs, and restaurants — and most travel — as well as advising older people to self isolate. (And of course, it was only 'advisory' – so that finance capital does not have to foot the bill for hundreds of thousands of insurance claims from small businesses.) But this has still left a gaping hole in government virus strategy. First, the World Health Organization (WHO) advice — "test, test, test" — is not being implemented. Health workers who were being organised to take on this role were almost immediately stood down. Everything is being done in secrecy: there is no openness, no transparency, no grown-up debate, no democratic scrutiny, no public accountability. We can only guess at the reason. Perhaps they realised it was hopeless because they didn’t have the testing kits. Perhaps it dawned on them that mass testing would reveal the vast numbers already infected and thus expose the scale of their negligence. What is certain is that willful blindness is central to Tory policy. There is virtually no testing anywhere. The WHO policy that you test, you trace, you isolate, you contain is being TOTALLY ignored by the Johnson/Cummings regime. They are not even testing health workers.
- Neil Faulkner on the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, Mass Deaths, Mass Poverty, Mass Repression, co-written with Phil Hearse, 20 March 2020, Mutiny
- This is putting thousands of health workers at risk, and essentially abandoning hundreds of them to catch the virus, to spread the virus, and in many cases to die. The experts in a health emergency are, of course, the health workers. But they are silenced by the Tories and the NHS bosses — threatened with dismissal if caught telling the truth to the public they serve — as if we were living in Stalinist China.
- Neil Faulkner, Mass Deaths, Mass Poverty, Mass Repression, co-written with Phil Hearse, 20 March 2020, Mutiny
- According to the Director-General of the WHO, the choice to abandon systematic testing and contract tracing, which were effective in Korea and Taiwan, was a major mistake that contributed to the spread of the virus in virtually every country. The ultimate cause of this alarming delay were strategic choices.
- Christian Laval and Pierre Dardot, The pandemic as political trial: the case for a global commons (March 28, 2020), ROAR Magazine
- The WHO's recommendations were very clear: states must not abandon systematic screening and contact tracing of anyone who tests positive for the virus.
- Christian Laval and Pierre Dardot, The pandemic as political trial: the case for a global commons (March 28, 2020), ROAR Magazine
- Three years ago, experts were saying that bat coronaviruses could become a new pandemic. Almost two months ago, experts were saying that the new virus in Wuhan was potentially a global threat. One month ago, experts were saying that it was likely to be pandemic, and the White House's response was that this was under control, despite the fact that the US's lack of testing was demonstrably giving a false picture of the extent of infection. This was foreseeable, and foreseen, weeks and months ago, and only now is the White House coming out of denial and heading straight into saying it could not have been foreseen.
- Marc Lipsitch, as quoted in Contrary to Trump’s Claim, A Pandemic Was Widely Expected at Some Point (March 20, 2020) by Rem Rieder, FactCheck.org.
- But as of right now and yesterday, anybody that needs a test — That's the important thing. And the tests are all perfect. Like, the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. Right? This was not as perfect as that but pretty good.
- Donald Trump, comparing coronavirus tests to his Ukraine phone call that led to his impeachment, during tour of Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, 2020-03-06, quoted in Chas Danner (6 March 2020), "Trump Says Coronavirus Testing Is as ‘Perfect’ as His Ukraine Call", New York
- No, I don't take responsibility at all, because we were given a set of circumstances and we were given rules, regulations and specifications from a different time.
- Donald Trump, asked if he took responsibility for the lag in coronavirus testing
- White House press conference, 2020-03-13, quoted in Zachary Halaschak (13 March 2020), "'I don't take responsibility at all': Trump pushes back on complaints about coronavirus testing", Washington Examiner
- Peter Alexander: How are non-symptomatic professional athletes getting tests while others are waiting in line and can't get them?
- Donald Trump: No, I wouldn’t say so, but perhaps that’s been the story of life. That does happen on occasion and I’ve noticed where some people have been tested fairly quickly.
- Coronavirus task force press briefing, 2020-03-18, quoted in Janelle Griffith (18 March 2020), "Coronavirus: Trump says it may be 'the story of life' that well-connected get testing first", NBC News
AprilEdit
- Market signals were clear: There’s no profit in preventing a future catastrophe. [...] One effect is the shockingly belated and limited testing, well below others, making it impossible to implement the successful test-and-trace strategies that have prevented the epidemic from breaking out of control in functioning societies. Even the best hospitals lack basic equipment. The U.S. is now the global epicenter of the crisis.
- Noam Chomsky, in an interview with C.J. Polychroniou, Chomsky: Ventilator Shortage Exposes the Cruelty of Neoliberal Capitalism (April 1, 2020), Truthout
- That White House Coronavirus Task Force met today. It was reported to us that, at this moment, more than 746,000 Americans have tested positive for the coronavirus.
- Remember that, a month ago, we had done 80,000 coronavirus tests in America. This weekend, we cleared more than 4 million. And we’re currently testing more than a million Americans a week. We fully expect to actually have tested more than 5 million Americans before the end of this month. But at the President's urging, we’re going to continue to scale that testing and then work with governors to make sure that they can manage and implement and deploy that testing in the manner that will most support their efforts to move their states forward. Remember that the testing that is contemplated in the Guidelines for Opening Up America Again, for phase one, are testing people that have symptoms that may be coronavirus, and then also having the testing resources to deploy to vulnerable communities: nursing homes or other vulnerable communities that we have identified as needing additional –what is called "monitoring" or "surveillance testing".
- We believe we have the testing today around the country that would allow any state in America to move into phase one if they've met the other criteria: fourteen days of consistent declines and strong hospital capacity, so that their system would not be overwhelmed in the event of a flare-up. But we’re going to be working with governors tomorrow on the subject of testing and supplies. And as the President said again this evening: We’re here to help. We’ve forged a partnership with governors around the country, and tomorrow we’ll be building on that partnership to hopefully arrive at the day that we can make sure governors around the nation have the best advice and the best resources to put America back to work.
- Secondly, the president made it clear to us that we were to make sure the hospitals in impacted areas had the resources and the equipment that they needed to be able to save as many lives as possible. [...] But testing has been a focus of ours as well, from very beginning. And it's the reason why the president, early on, brought in this vast array of commercial labs that took us from 80,000 tests one month ago to now four million tests as of yesterday. And as we'll make clear again to governors tomorrow in our weekly conference call, we look forward to continuing to partner with governors all across the country as we continue to scale testing. Because we really believe that, while we're doing 150,000 tests a day now, that if states around the country will activate all of the laboratories that are available in their states, we could more than double that overnight and literally be doing hundreds of thousands of more tests per day in a very short period of time.
- Mike Pence, in an interview with Chuck Todd at Meet the Press (April 19, 2020). Transcript online at NBCNews.com
- Just so we're very clear, when the president outlined his guidelines for opening up America, we laid out a plan for both -- for when and how we thought it was best according to our best scientists and advisors for states to be able to responsibly and safely reopen. And we believe today as Dr. Birx has said, as Dr. Fauci and others have said, is that there is a sufficient capacity of testing across the country today for any state in America to go to a phase one level which contemplates testing people that have symptoms of the coronavirus. And also doing the kind of monitoring of vulnerable populations in our cities, in our nursing homes that we ought to be watching very carefully for outbreaks of the coronavirus. But we believe working with the governors, as we'll continue to partner with them, that we can activate labs around the country and that states today, if the governor so chooses, have sufficient testing to be able to move into the testing contemplated in phase one.
- Mike Pence, in an interview with Chuck Todd at Meet the Press (April 19, 2020). Transcript online at NBCNews.com
- And we also have deployed a team from Walter Reed that over the last two weeks has been calling every single laboratory in the country that can do coronavirus testing. And tomorrow we'll be presenting all of those details to governors so that they can activate those tests in their state.
- Mike Pence, in an interview with Chuck Todd at Meet the Press (April 19, 2020). Transcript online at NBCNews.com
- Admiral Brett Giroir of the U.S. Public Health Service spends all of his time coordinating testing deployment and resources deployment from FEMA. And what we're making clear to governors, and I want the American people to know, is that we will continue to do that. While the president has made it clear that we want the governors to implement testing and deploy testing where they deem it's most appropriate in their state, we're going to continue to fully partner with states around the country to increase the supply, to make sure that they have the reagents and the test kits necessary to perform those tests. But I want to say again, it is truly -- it's a tribute to the president's leadership that early on in this process he brought in the top commercial labs in the country. They formed an alliance. And we went from one month ago to 80,000 tests being done to four million tests being completed as of yesterday. We'll continue to increase that. We'll continue to make governors aware of that.
- Mike Pence, in an interview with Chuck Todd at Meet the Press (April 19, 2020). Transcript online at NBCNews.com
- In any health care crisis, we want to make sure the health care workers at the local level have the resources they need because it's locally executed. It is state managed. But it's federally supported. And the federal government at the president's direction will continue to support governors as they deploy the testing resources in the time and manner of their choosing. But we believe today, as Dr. Deborah Birx has confirmed, is we have a sufficient capacity of testing today for any state in America to move into phase one and begin the process of reopening their state and their economy.
- Mike Pence, in an interview with Chuck Todd at Meet the Press (April 19, 2020). Transcript online at NBCNews.com
- I've seen that report in the papers this morning. And I know that HHS is making inquiries. But we believe those issues were resolved on that particular test by early February. But it's important for your viewers to know that that test, the slow lab-based test that is typical for CDC and public health labs would never have been able to meet the needs of testing in this coronavirus epidemic. That's why President Trump was so right when he brought together these commercial labs and formed a consortium. And literally took us from -- at that time in February we had done some 20,000 tests total across the country. Now we've done more than four million and we believe we'll have done more than five million tests before the end of this month. None of that would have been possible without the president's leadership, without the innovation, without the incredible efforts of companies like Roche and Avid Laboratories. And the American people can be confident that whether it is supplies, whether it is testing, we're going to continue to make sure that our governors, our state health care officials and most especially our health care workers have the resources and the support they need. But I want the American people to know that sitting here this morning we really are seeing encouraging signs because of what the American people have done, we believe we are slowing the spread.
- Mike Pence on a FDA's report stating that CDC's initial test was faulty, in an interview with Chuck Todd at Meet the Press (April 19, 2020). Transcript online at NBCNews.com
- We believe that under the phase one criteria that we have a sufficient amount of testing at that level to allow states to begin to responsibly reopen. And literally doing more than 150,000 tests a day now, a number that we believe we could double once we activate all the laboratories around the country, we're confident that that would enable any governor who's otherwise met the criteria of 14 days of declining cases to be able to have the testing capacity sufficient to monitor people that may have symptoms so we can identify them and do contact tracing and also deploy the resources to vulnerable populations, nursing homes and particular vulnerable populations in our city to ensure that we don't see a resurgence of the coronavirus. So yes, we think we've laid a strong foundation for testing for phase one and we're going to continue to expand testing going forward for the nation in the weeks and months ahead.
- Mike Pence on a FDA's report stating that CDC's initial test was faulty, in an interview with Chuck Todd at Meet the Press (April 19, 2020). Transcript online at NBCNews.com
- So we’ve done 1,670,000 tests. Think of that 1,670,000 tests. And we have a great system. Now we’re working with the states in almost all instances, but we have a great system. And the other thing that we bought a tremendous amount of is the hydroxy chloroquine. Hydroxy chloroquine, which I think is, you know, it’s a great malaria drug. It’s worked unbelievably. It’s a powerful drug on malaria and there are signs that it works on this, some very strong signs and in the meantime it’s been around a long time. It also works very powerfully on lupus, so there are some very strong powerful signs and we’ll have to see because again, it’s tested.
- Donald Trump, Coronavirus Task Force Briefing, April 5. Transcript at Rev.
- I want them to try it. It may work, and it may not work. But if it doesn’t work, it’s nothing lost by doing it. Nothing. Because we know long-term what I want. I want to save lives, and I don’t want it to be in a lab for the next year-and-a-half as people are dying all over the place. In France, they had a very good test. They’re continuing. But we don’t have time to go and say, gee, let’s take a couple of years and test it out, and let’s go and test with the test tubes and the laboratories. We don’t have time. I’d love to do that, but we have people dying today. As we speak, there are people dying. If it works, that’d be great. If it doesn’t work, we know for many years malaria, it’s incredible what it’s done for malaria. It’s incredible what it’s done for lupus, but it doesn’t kill people.
- Donald Trump, on using the drug as treatment for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Coronavirus Task Force Briefing (April 5, 2020). Transcript at Rev.
- I think I read yesterday a report that we’ve done more than everybody — every other country — combined, we’ve tested more than every other country in the world even put together.
- Donald Trump, quoted by Aaron Rupar (21 April 2020), "Trump just said the US has done more coronavirus testing than the rest of the world. Not even close.", Vox
- Note: At that time, the US had done just above 4 million tests, while worldwide more than 20 million tests had been done.
- The only reason the U.S. has reported one million cases of CoronaVirus is that our Testing is sooo much better than any other country in the World.
- Donald Trump, quoted by Stephen Collinson (29 April 2020), "Trump still seems to not understand how bad the coronavirus crisis is", CNN
- Donald Trump: And you have to understand: When we took over, the cupboards were bare. And the thing that — frankly, it’s not as tough as the ventilator situation. We’re the king of ventilators. But what we have done is — on testing, we’re doing numbers the likes of which nobody has ever seen before. And I told you, the President of South Korea, President Moon, called me to congratulate me on testing. And we did more tests than any other country anywhere in the world. And I think they told me yesterday a number — if you add up the rest of the world, we’ve done more testing. And it’s a higher quality test. So I think we’ve done a — I think the whole team, federal government — we built hospitals for you and others.
- Phil Murphy: You bet.
- Donald Trump: We built medical centers. And I’m talking about thousands and thousands of beds. Many, many medical centers. We had — as you know, we had the governor of Florida and the governor of Louisiana over the last two days. They could not have been — and one was a Democrat, and this gentleman happens to be a proud Democrat. They could not have been more supportive of the effort of the federal government. And I’ll tell you, Jim —
- James Acosta: But aren’t you seeing massive lines for food?
- Donald Trump: Let me just tell you, we have — we started off with empty cupboards. The last administration left us nothing. We started off with bad, broken tests and obsolete tests. What we’ve come up with, between the Abbott Laboratories, where you have the five-minute test. Did they test you today?
- Phil Murphy: They did test me.
- Donald Trump: Good. Now I feel better. (Laughter.)
- Phil Murphy: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m negative.
- Donald Trump: You did the five-minute — the Abbott test.
- Phil Murphy: I did the quick turnaround.
- Donald Trump: It’s so great.
- Phil Murphy: I feel like a new man.
- Donald Trump: That’s a brand — you know what? That’s a brand-new test. That didn’t exist eight weeks ago, and now it’s like the rage. Everybody wants that test. No, I think we’ve done — I think we’ve done a really great job.
- About the lack of tests for the novel coronavirus, Remarks by President Trump in a Meeting with Governor Murphy of New Jersey (April 30, 2020), whitehouse.gov. Quoted in Did Trump Blame Obama for ‘Bad’ COVID-19 Tests? by Bethania Palma, 1 May 2020, Snopes
- Note: No previous administration could have prepared a test for a disease which had yet to emerge. COVID-19 emerged during Trump's presidency, the test was designed in 2020 by the Centers for Disease Control under the Trump administration. See Misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic#Presidential
MayEdit
- If people want to get tested, they get tested.
- Donald Trump, [Quoted in By Daniel Dale, David Wright, Arman Azad, Holmes Lybrand (11 May 2020), "Fact check: Trump falsely claims, again, that anybody who wants a test can get one", CNN
- If we didn’t do any testing, we would have very few cases
- Donald Trump, as quoted in Aaron Rupar (16 May 2020), "Trump seems to think there’d be no coronavirus if there was no testing. It doesn’t work like that.", VOX
- When we have a lot of cases, I don’t look at that as a bad thing — I look at that in a certain respect as being a good thing because it means our testing is much better. ... So I view it as a badge of honour, really,
- Donald Trump, about the 1.59 million confirmed cases of Covid-19, as quoted in Oliver O'Connell (19 May 2020), "Coronavirus: Trump says it’s ‘badge of honour’ for US to lead world in Covid-19 cases", Independent
- Yeah. I tested positively toward negative, right? So, no, I tested perfectly this morning, meaning—meaning I tested negative... But that’s a way of saying it: positively toward the negative.
- Donald Trump, on having had a coronavirus test, spoken to reporters on the White House lawn, 2020-05-21. Bethania Palma (22 May 2020), Did Trump Say He ‘Tested Very Positively’ for COVID-19, Meaning Negative?, Snopes, retrieved on May 22, 2020
JuneEdit
- To one extent or another, the volume of new cases coming in is a reflection of a great success in expanding testing across the country.
- Mike Pence, about the coronavirus. Fact Checking Mike Pence on the Coronavirus Pandemic (June 26 2020)
- Cases up only because of our big number testing. Mortality rate way down!!!
- It’s fading away, it’s going to fade away.
- We have got the greatest testing program anywhere in the world.
- We’ve done too good a job.
- You know testing is a double-edged sword. ... Here’s the bad part. When you test to that extent, you are going to find more people, find more cases. So I said to my people, ‘Slow the testing down please.’
- Donald Trump, about the Covid-19 pandemic, as quoted by Calvin Woodward, Hope Yen (23 June 2020), "AP FACT CHECK: Sober science weighs in on Trump’s virus take", AP
JulyEdit
- Now we have tested almost 40m people. By so doing, we show cases, 99% of which are totally harmless.
- Donald Trump, describing the situation with Covid-19, where more than 128 000 had died out of around 2,800,000 found cases at that time, a death rate of more than 4 %, and around 40,000 to 50,000 new cases were found per day, as quoted by David Smith (4 July 2020), "Trump claims 99% of US Covid-19 cases are 'totally harmless' as infections surge", The Guardian
- For the 1/100th time, the reason we show so many Cases, compared to other countries that haven’t done nearly as well as we have, is that our TESTING is much bigger and better. We have tested 40,000,000 people. If we did 20,000,000 instead, Cases would be half, etc. NOT REPORTED!
- Donald Trump, as quoted by Calvin Woodward, Hope Yen, and Christopher Rugaber (11 July 2020), "AP FACT CHECK: Trump keeps repeating false pandemic information", Sentinel Colorado
NovemberEdit
- Something extremely bogus is going on. Was tested for covid four times today. Two tests came back negative, two came back positive.
- Elon Musk after taking a series of rapid antigen tests according to [Elon Musk tests positive for COVID-19 … and negative published November 12, 2020