Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic

by Scott Gottlieb

It meant that doctors around the country had to forward samples to the CDC for testing. Physicians would first have to call the CDC and convince the agency to agree to take a sample for evaluation. It was a cumbersome process that limited the flow of specimens. By that point, there were far more people in America with unusual respiratory symptoms whose doctors wanted to test them, but the CDC’s criteria still required that patients have all the signs and symptoms of COVID along with a history of travel to Wuhan or known exposure to someone who was already infected. This created a situation similar to when China’s CDC required some contact with the Wuhan food market to be considered as a possible COVID case. It was only after Robert Redfield had suggested to George Gao that the Chinese CDC broaden its criteria that Gao revealed that the outbreak was probably out of control. Now, nearly two months later, the US CDC’s requirements seriously narrowed who could qualify to be tested in America.35 On March 1, the CDC’s official tally of COVID cases rose from fifteen to seventy-five. Models developed later by researchers at Northeastern University show that by this date, the US probably had 28,000 infections.