Lots of claims in the media that our testing is too slow to be useful. Where's data?

[SAN compnerd]

I keep reading these stories and seeing posts about how our world class testing system is just too slow and therefor not really useful.

Can someone who holds/repeats that opinion produce the data behind that belief? Like test return times by state and lab vendor? Something comprehensive so we can see if that is in fact true? Because I have seen zero supporting evidence to back that claim.

Back of the envelope math:

6 months is 259,200 minutes.

65 million tests in 6 months give or take.

Unless my math is off that's 250 tests every minute of every hour of every day for the past six months.

250 tests a minute 24x7. Where is the slowness?

[seal20]

People I know are waiting 7-10 days for results. They all just say eff it and do what they're going to do...

[SAN compnerd]

People I know are waiting 7-10 days for results. They all just say eff it and do what they're going to do...

I keep hearing this, but that's not data, that's rumor. I want to know if anyone has any real facts to support this narrative.

During the 7-10 day wait another 100,800 to 144,000 tests are performed, or results given depending on if you are looking into the future or the past.

I need some real numbers to back this idea up, cuz I'm calling media BS.

[sd_shooter]

It took my wife's test 10 days to process

[balgor]

https://covidstates.net/COVID19%20CONSORTIUM%20REPORT%208%20TEST%20JULY%202020.pdf

We find that the mean waiting time nationally was 4.1 days, and median waiting time 3 days. Only 37% of people received test results within 2 days, and 21% waited more than 5 days.

So not great. The main concern is the 21% receiving tests after more than 5 days, making the result pretty useless. Ideally you want 100% of test results within 2 days, but anything above 90% would be good.

[billped]

A key factor to consider is that many people are tested many times. So don't think that 65m tests means 20% of the US was tested. It's probably closer to 5%-10%.

[SAN compnerd]

https://covidstates.net/COVID19%20CO...ULY%202020.pdf

We find that the mean waiting time nationally was 4.1 days, and median waiting time 3 days. Only 37% of people received test results within 2 days, and 21% waited more than 5 days.

So not great. The main concern is the 21% receiving tests after more than 5 days, making the result pretty useless. Ideally you want 100% of test results within 2 days, but anything above 90% would be good.

So far faster than the BS media narrative. Almost half got results in 2 days and 1/5 took over 5 days. Looks like we are doing excellent. Good to know.

Clearly fast enough to do contact tracing and isolation even at 4 day turnaround.

[duenor]

So far faster than the BS media narrative. Almost half got results in 2 days and 1/5 took over 5 days. Looks like we are doing excellent. Good to know.

Clearly fast enough to do contact tracing and isolation even at 4 day turnaround.

The "BS media narrative" is what you just described. If most people are not getting their results within 48 hours, that is not good at all. 48 hours isn't great speed, it's just the basic standard.
The end result is as many in this thread alone have described - people are just like, "screw it, I can't use up my sick days when I don't even know if I'm really sick. going to go back to work" - which is not what you want when you're trying to keep a virus from spreading.
We are just pouring money down the drain of this "best testing system in the world"

[the_tunaman]

My wife got her test results back in 18 hours when she tested positive 5 weeks ago.

[JoefromPA]

My wife got sent for a test at the local hospital that processes their own tests, had results in less than 24 hours. Her sister went to CVS to get tested, results in 6 days.

[SAN compnerd]

The "BS media narrative" is what you just described. If most people are not getting their results within 48 hours, that is not good at all. 48 hours isn't great speed, it's just the basic standard.
The end result is as many in this thread alone have described - people are just like, "screw it, I can't use up my sick days when I don't even know if I'm really sick. going to go back to work" - which is not what you want when you're trying to keep a virus from spreading.
We are just pouring money down the drain of this "best testing system in the world"

Count the number of times in your life that you have gotten lab work back in 48 hours.

Then multiply that by the number of f's I don't give about your BS narrative.

[duenor]

Count the number of times in your life that you have gotten lab work back in 48 hours.

Then multiply that by the number of f's I don't give about your BS narrative.

Doesn't matter whether you care or not, the truth is what it is. That's your tax dollars, my tax dollars, being spent poorly.

[balgor]

So far faster than the BS media narrative. Almost half got results in 2 days and 1/5 took over 5 days. Looks like we are doing excellent. Good to know.

Clearly fast enough to do contact tracing and isolation even at 4 day turnaround.

In what world is 37%~50%? The same world where a 2 papers with the same authors but different titles, methodologies, etc are the same? I've only taken math though real analysis and abstract algebra, but I'm pretty sure 37~50. I know you won't understand, but the way social networks work is that the number of contacts increases exponentially with time, so a test returned at 3 days versus 2 has dramatically more contacts, making contact tracing much more difficult.

You're so wrapped up in your agenda you can't even add or subtract correctly or read properly.

[SAN compnerd]

Doesn't matter whether you care or not, the truth is what it is. That's your tax dollars, my tax dollars, being spent poorly.

For clarity's sake, I do care about the best in the world testing system that was built from the ground up during a global pandemic that now allows testing rates of over 250 test PER MINUTE EVERY MINUTE OF EVERY DAY for the past six months because it shows what a tremendous waste of tax dollars the CDC is when for years it's only job was to prevent and control new contagions and with literally millions of taxpayer dollars spent over decades in pursuit of that goal they proved it was all wasted money and they can't do what we need them to do in a crisis, their ONLY job.

That's your tax dollars at work, the massive failures of the CDC to show our investment in their program as worthwhile or more specifically, wasted in this case.

Big bloated corrupt government can't do what they sold the taxpayers they could do.

Millions and decades wasted.