Coronavirus test: confusion over availability and criteria is leaving sick people wondering if they’re infected

CNN — A group of first responders in Washington state, a scientist in California, a woman at an assisted living facility in Florida – all worried because they believe they might have novel coronavirus but say they can’t get tested. Their stories came into CNN’s tip line even as Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday told CNN’s morning show, “New Day,” that anyone with a doctor’s order could get tested. A primary care doctor in Massachusetts said Pence’s assertion that anyone with doctor’s orders for testing can get it is “totally false.” Doctor describes “insanity” of coronavirus testing Aside from critically ill patients who are hospitalized, the physician said the Massachusetts Department of Public Health is only approving testing for people who have been exposed to someone who has already tested positive or who has traveled to one of the five heavily impacted countries outside the US in the past 14 days, which mirrors CDC guidelines. “We are being crippled by our department of public health and the CDC on our ability to combat this pandemic.” The doctor said state and federal health officials “need to loosen the criteria on testing” and “allow us doctors to use our discretion to decide who should be tested.” As of Wednesday only 11,079 specimens had been tested in the US, paling in comparison to the more than 230,000 people tested in South Korea, which has about one sixth the US population. She described the effort to get tests to public labs as “a bit delayed” but also blamed commercial labs, saying they were “really slow to take this on and scale up.” Now, weeks into the crisis, Schuchat said “the jury’s out on what exactly is the best way to roll out testing.” “I’ve heard from colleagues in other countries about concern that there was so much testing going on that people with no symptoms and people who were not at risk clogged up the healthcare systems,” she added.