Right now, the commercial labs might maintain about three thousand testing machines in their largest reference sites. They typically operate these facilities at 80 percent capacity for maximal productivity. Their present focus is to operate these facilities for maximum efficiency. That helps keep costs down. Instead, there needs to be an equal focus on operating these sites with greater resiliency. Some surge capacity needs to be built into the system as a hedge against a major crisis. This could mean, for example, operating five thousand machines but running each of them at 50 percent
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