The hard part of getting tested for COVID-19 should be enduring the nasal swab, which some people have described as "having your brain tickled through your nose." In other words: not pleasant. But the real pain comes afterward, when you’re waiting for your results.
While some people in the United States get their results within hours, others wait for days or even weeks. When they finally receive them, some get "a result so stale that it’s almost completely useless from a public health standpoint," writes my colleague Emily Barone in her new deep dive into the ongoing testing delays.
Barone set out to map average test-result wait times across the U.S. But to her surprise, there was hardly any data to use—which led her to focus on why the problem exists in the first place. Her conclusion? Testing in the U.S. is "fundamentally broken," she writes.
Testing samples end up at labs that are ill equipped to handle high demand. Supplies—like nasal swabs, reagents, personnel and testing machines—are low, slowing the process. And because so many labs are all trying to get the same supplies, there’s intense competition for resources. "It’s The Hunger Games for laboratories," one lab director told Barone. "The pandemic has revealed a lot of weaknesses in the system. It’s a nightmare from a lab perspective."
The result is that wait times are all over the place. Some people are so frustrated with the delays that they're not getting tested altogether. That’s helping the delay situation, but in a perverse way that hampers the overall U.S. pandemic response. "Testing delays recently have gotten better," Barone says. "Turnaround times are faster. But that is a product of fewer samples entering the testing system in the first place, because states are deterring asymptomatic people from getting tested, and also, people are just fed up. Why should they wait in line for a test result that will be useless?"
The U.S.’s flawed testing process doesn’t bode well for its ability to control viral spread. "Experts say we need more testing, not less, in order to find cases and do contact tracing in an effective way. But as the system is set up right now, it's really challenging to make that happen because labs and suppliers are already at capacity," Barone says. "There are huge public health consequences."
More than 20.3 million people around the world had been sickened by COVID-19 as of 1 PM eastern time today, and more than 742,000 people have died.
Here is every country with over 250,000 confirmed cases:
The pandemic has plunged Britain into its worst recession on record, CNN reports; the country’s gross domestic product dropped by more than 22% between January and June. The U.K’s economic struggles are in part due to a lockdown that came late in the outbreak, and has remained in place longer than similar measures elsewhere in Europe. "Hundreds of thousands of people have already lost their jobs, and sadly in the coming months many more will,” the country’s finance minister, Rishi Sunak, said in a statement.
The 2020 Paris Marathon, which had already been rescheduled for October, has been cancelled, organizers announced today. The news comes after French officials yesterday banned gatherings of more than 5,000 people through at least October, making it difficult to imagine holding an event that typically draws about 60,000 runners, not to mention spectators and staff.
Jordan will close its border with Syria for a week starting on Thursday, CNN reports, after Jordanian officials claimed the crossing is to blame for a new crop of infections. Jordan has relatively low numbers of cases (1,283) and deaths (11) as a result of strict lockdown measures that have been in place since March. Given Syria’s ongoing civil war, it’s difficult to know for certain how bad the outbreak is there, but one medical worker in the country told NPR that it’s spreading through government-held areas at an “alarming rate.”
The Situation in the U.S.
The U.S. recorded more than 5.1 million coronavirus cases as of 1 PM eastern time today. More than 164,000 people have died. Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
On August 11, there were more than 46,800 new cases and 1,074 new deaths confirmed in the U.S. Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending:
As of today, the U.S. has recorded fewer than 50,000 new daily cases for three days in a row, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. But average daily deaths from the virus have been above 1,000 for about the past two weeks, meaning it’s still nowhere near time to celebrate. Furthermore, there’s a chance that testing delays are making the state of the U.S. outbreak seem rosier than it really is—it may be that cases are actually growing, but the country is doing a bad job of tracking that growth.
The Trump Administration struck a deal yesterday with yet another pharmaceutical company, Moderna, to acquire its vaccine if and when it’s approved. Under the agreement, Moderna will manufacture and distribute 100 million doses of its vaccine to the U.S. government, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS has forged similar agreements with Pfizer, Janssen and other companies; Moderna’s vaccine is currently in Phase 3 clinical trials. “In creating a vaccine portfolio for Operation Warp Speed, the Trump Administration is increasing the likelihood that the United States will have at least one safe, effective vaccine by 2021,” said HHS Secretary Alex Azar in a statement.
Can you catch the virus through the air? That seemingly simple question has vexed scientists for months, but a new study from the University of Florida produced disturbing evidence that the answer could be yes. In the study, researchers gathered air samples from a COVID-19 hospital ward, and isolated the virus from aerosols collected up to 16 feet away from patients. The research doesn't settle the matter—some experts say that the amount of viral material the scientists collected was likely not enough to cause infection, and the study has yet to undergo peer review—but it’s alarming nonetheless.
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of August 12, 1 AM eastern time. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
Some People Never Really ‘Recover’ From COVID-19, And They Need Our Help
Here’s yet another way that the coronavirus differs from the seasonal flu: many people do not recover after a few weeks. In a condition informally called “long COVID,” people experience symptoms for 16 weeks or more. Physicians Gavin Yamey and Sharon Taylor explore why these patients aren’t getting the care—or research attention—they need. Read more here.
Russia’s Vaccine Isn’t Ready, Experts Warn
Vaccine experts around the world are condemning Russia’s approval yesterday of what it claims is the world’s first coronavirus vaccine. Because of the rapid timeline involved—and the fact that Russian researchers haven’t published their Phase 1 or Phase 2 trial results, or completed Phase 3 safety and efficacy trials—they say unleashing a vaccine on the Russian people is reckless, Nature reports. “If they get it wrong it could undermine the entire global enterprise,” one scientist said. Read more here.
Young People Who Vape Are More Likely to Get COVID-19
The pandemic has eclipsed another U.S. outbreak we haven’t heard much about lately: teen vaping. But a new study from Stanford University researchers finds that the two might be connected: Young adults who vaped were found to be five to seven times more likely to be infected than those who didn’t vape. Read more here.
Wealthy Families Turn to Tiny Houses to Keep Grandparents Safe
In an outbreak that has claimed the lives of so many seniors, assisted living facilities may no longer seem like the best places for grandparents. So some families who can afford to do so are installing ADUs—accessory dwelling units, which are basically small houses—in their backyard to give their elderly loved ones a safer place to live, Bloomberg reports. Luxury models can cost as much as a full-size house. Read more here.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Mandy Oaklander and edited by Alex Fitzpatrick.
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