![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/zafrada/23sxozwVD7vY52bkeePDqZZ24du8s1nVpp3QUEpE3ao1WL3XvpqqeJnS3Nw3iGBGgMBmN.png)



If I was asked to summarize the key takeaway on the pandemic, it is that the US failed on testing. Everything else takes a backseat to that. Look at these two charts that show the power of testing as pandemic control and the complete failure of the US on testing. I chose Norway and South Korea as they are two Covid successes in part due to extensive early testing. South Korea never had a national lockdown.

The Trump Admin squandered vital time in February and March that could have been used to build up testing. It isn't a question of ability. We have enormous testing capacity in this country. Second to almost no country if fully utilized.

It isn't a question of technology either, South Korea and New Zealand built up their large testing capacity through standard PCR tests.

It isn't a question of insurmountable regulatory hurdles either. Tests for Swine Flu were privately deployed in two weeks. The CDC deployed a Swine Flu test in a month.

Even when we did start testing we treated testing less as a proactive mitigation tool for tracing and isolation and more as a surveillance tool. The bulk of cases were not being identified. Test positivity rates in a number of states were well above 5% throughout the pandemic. Did you know we never got below 4% test positivity in the US the entire pandemic? Even now we are at 5.8%. And turnaround time on tests stretched to 7 days or more making them functionally useless as a method to control spread. Meanwhile South Korea would manage turnaround times of a day or less.


![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/zafrada/23uFwHu1jSBWwF8XkaxpkviYxTp8cUHHpGDJ7b5FSq6ApMGD8aGgvmcnXQxJFTBkUM2zg.png)


You can't trace what you aren't even aware of and long turnaround times make whatever tracing is done is even more burdened.

And we were testing a lot in the later waves but really nowhere close to where we needed to. I think people have to keep that in mind. We never got below 4% positivity ever this pandemic. It is even worse at the state level. CT got below 1% positivity, but South Dakota? Lol. South Dakota barely got below 10% positivity after it started having cases. Doing a million tests is great, but not so much if you are having 1 million cases.

![*log scale*](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/zafrada/23t8D6MYf5xYtoWaGNmHcMfgPm5G358ctVwBNTVkYWS2ZVpM7rtydLyHwDZAoMpMtfsTS.png)