Bill Gates Says U.S. Virus Testing Has ‘Mind-Blowing’ Problems

[Mary Wilson]

By Yueqi YangAugust 9, 2020, 11:58 AM CDT

• Says early missteps, politicization led to testing failure
• Microsoft founder says no other country has such ‘insanity’

Microsoft Corp. founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates said it’s “mind-blowing” that the U.S. government hasn’t improved Covid-19 testing that he described as slow and lacking fair access.

“You’re paying billions of dollars in this very inequitable way to get the most worthless test results of any country in the world,” Gates said on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” on Sunday. “No other country has this testing insanity.”

“A variety of early missteps by the U.S. and then the political atmosphere meant that we didn’t get our testing going,” he said.
Gates cited long lines at commercial labs and delays in obtaining test results, meaning that “you pay as much for the late result as the timely result.” Meanwhile, “very wealthy people have access to these quick-turnaround tests,” he said.

“It’s mind-blowing that you can’t get the government to improve the testing because they just want to say how great it is,” Gates said.

Public officials have regularly cited delays in testing results in the U.S. as an impediment to quick contact tracking and isolation of people infected with the virus.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic..._medium=social

 

[Mary Wilson]

Advocate Aurora is short on COVID-19 supplies and will close most testing sites, stop testing some patients before surgery

Sophie Carson
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Updated 6:15 p.m. CT Aug. 6, 2020

Advocate Aurora Health will stop testing some patients for COVID-19 before surgery and will close all but one of its community testing sites in Wisconsin.

The changes are temporary and due to a shortage of tests, according to the hospital system. It is experiencing a "delay in anticipated shipments" of supplies, according to a news release.

Advocate Aurora will suspend testing before gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures, interventional radiology and selective cardiology procedures. They will provide "enhanced" personal protective equipment to medical staff instead.

Testing will also stop for outpatient or clinic-based aerosol-generating procedures, which are procedures that generally produce more infectious respiratory droplets than when a patient coughs or sneezes.

According to an email to employees obtained by the Journal Sentinel, Advocate Aurora Health has not received its last two shipments of 17,000 tests. The system uses about 13,000 tests a week, according to the email, and had a supply of two to three days on hand as of Tuesday. It was working to finalize deals with other test providers in the coming two weeks.

Ascension Wisconsin also experienced a "supply disruption in recent weeks" but has connected with new vendors and does not have a shortage of tests, Dr. Greg Brusko, chief clinical officer, said in a statement.

Ascension continues to require every patient scheduled for an elective or non-emergency surgery to take a coronavirus test and it has not closed any testing sites. Its testing capacity remains unchanged.

And a spokeswoman for Froedtert Hospital and the Medical College of Wisconsin said that they have a sufficient supply of tests. Froedtert is continuing to test patients before surgery and new patients admitted to the hospital regardless of symptoms.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news...ng-aurora-stop-testing-most-sites/3308154001/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My Personal Opinion: Stop testing = lower new cases count

My brother has been to a Wisconsin Aurora Hospital's ER four/4 times in less than ten/10 days.

Each ER visit with tests, labs, radiology and one invasive procedure performed, and never a Cover-19 test was mentioned.
Yesterday the ER finally admitted him, he is in serious condition, with pneumonia.
And, guess what, they finally tested him for coronavirus. He is in isolation.

Now, the Hospital tells us, we have to wait 3-4 days before the Covid-19 test results come back.

NOTE: I admire whistle-blowers like Bill Gates, who can afford to speak up, and tell us the truth in what we all are facing living here in the United States.