Alex Azar’s face reddened when he heard the news: The only federally authorized tests to detect whether Americans were infected with the new coronavirus were flawed, and officials couldn’t identify what was causing the problem. This was a serious complication. Some public-health authorities feared the virus might be spreading in the U.S. Mr. Azar asked if the CDC could go faster. “You’ve got to do this,” he told the CDC official, said the attendee. It took 21 days for testing to take off—from Feb. 8 when state and city public-health labs detected a problem, until Feb. 29, when federal officials offered a broad solution.

Source: Wall Street Journal August 18, 2020 16:21 UTC