March 28 // March 17
So did we turn down those virus tests or not?
One of the nagging and most perplexing questions about our country’s response to the coronavirus centers around testing.
A few weeks ago, social media outrage focused on a version of this: “Why, oh why did we refuse an offer of tests for the WHO at the very early stages of this outbreak?” More colorful responses were along the lines of “Why T F did that idiot Trump refuse these tests?” Logical questions, regardless of their tone. More tests mean more information about those infected and more quarantining of carriers; people who could inadvertently but exponentially increase the rapid spread of this virus among the population at large.
To sum up: Why did we refuse the offer of tests from the WHO? We need tests! People are dying. We can’t treat them if we don’t know who has the virus!
At the time, we wondered if our government's “refusal” was perhaps based on the resources that exist in the United States, and the fact that the WHO is perhaps more concerned about countries with fewer resources, and far less sophisticated infrastructure. In other words, maybe the WHO spends more time addressing countries that basically need and count on their assistance to combat any kind of health emergency, not least of which would be a pandemic with the impact of coronavirus.
But back to the question of “refusing the tests.” Turns out, we did nothing of the kind. We didn’t refuse the offer from the WHO because it wasn’t made ; for all the reasons we theorized about, posted above.
Given the long and extensive outrage about this circumstance that never took place, here are are a couple of sources you can check if you’re somewhat dumbfounded by this information, as we were.
The New York Times, March 17, 2020: Did Federal Officials Really Question W.H.O. Tests for Coronavirus?
The article covers a number of topics; here is the salient point:
Excerpt: In any case, Mr. Biden’s assertion (at the Democratic debate on March 15) that the Trump administration refused tests offered by the W.H.O. appears to be wrong. The W.H.O. does not sell tests to wealthy countries, which usually prefer to make their own.
TWAN aside: “…appears to be wrong?” Given the sentence that follows that phrase, “appears” is an interesting choice.
Dr. Anne Schuchat, deputy principal director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, confirmed that the W.H.O. gave test kits “primarily to underresourced countries.”Another administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that the W.H.O. had never offered to sell or give tests to the United States.
Snopes, March 17, 2020: The United States "refused" COVID-19 diagnostic tests offered by the World Health Organization.
Excerpt: Although Trump’s political opponents and some media sources accused his administration of “refusing” to use the WHO test, Fauci’s comment and various credible news reports on the topic indicate that the CDC has a standard procedure for handling diagnostic tests during an outbreak, and that protocol doesn’t include using tests provided by WHO (or any other external organization). We therefore rate this claim “Mixture.”
TWAN Aside: Given the title of the story Snopes was purportedly fact-checking, and given the information they found, we’re a bit perplexed about how their assessment could have been “mixture” but that was their rating.
Here’s the summary that follows the narrative:
What's True
The U.S. did not use COVID-19 diagnostic tests produced by the World Health Organization (WHO) in favor of producing its own.
TWAN Aside: The more appropriate way to add his information to their overall assessment would have been this:
Based on historical protocol and the primary mission of the WHO, the U.S. does not use tests produced by the World Health Organization, in favor of producing its own.
What's False
The U.S. did not turn down an offer to use those tests (as no such offer was extended), nor was it unusual for the United States to design and produce its own diagnostic tests in lieu of those made elsewhere.
TWAN Aside: Another way to phrase this summary - one that doesn’t bury the lede - might have been: The U.S. did not receive an offer of diagnostic tests from the WHO (and therefore did not turn it down), nor was it unusual for the United States to design and produce its own diagnostic tests in lieu of those made elsewhere.
Fact Check.org, March 20, 2020: Biden, Trump Wrong About WHO Coronavirus Tests
More of what you’ve already read but this one adds a little jolt of how Trump was wrong, too. Think of that as a bonus, if you will.
Excerpt: Biden is right that the U.S. wanted to make its own test, but he leaves out important context — including the fact that many countries with the scientific capability designed their own tests, and that the WHO test kits are largely meant for less wealthy countries with weaker health systems. And he’s wrong that the U.S. ever “refused” a test from the WHO.
President Donald Trump also falsely claimed that the WHO test “was a bad test.” The test is highly accurate and has performed well.
Politifact, March 15, 2020: Biden falsely says Trump administration rejected WHO coronavirus test kits (that were never offered)
The entire story is linked above but here is their summary, and they call it “mostly false.” Well, sure, if by "mostly false" they mean “false.” We love the bullets they offer to save you the time and drudgery of reading a complete article.
IF YOUR TIME IS SHORT
We could go on – but we won’t. A google search of “U.S. refused WHO virus tests” will return plenty of stories to read.
Okay, one more but mostly to illustrate that absent the extremely unfortunate defects in the initial tests developed by the CDC, our response and timing was not entirely abysmal, based on the reported numbers:
The Washington Post, March 16, 2020: How U.S. coronavirus testing stalled: Flawed tests, red tape and resistance to using the millions of tests produced by the WHO
Excerpt: As early as Feb. 6, four weeks after the genome of the virus was published, the WHO had shipped 250,000 diagnostic tests to 70 laboratoriesaround the world, the agency said.
By comparison, the CDC at that time was shipping about 160,000 tests to labs across the nation— but then the manufacturing troubles were discovered, and most would be deemed unusable because they produced confusing results.
Moving on….
So where did the story about the administration refusing the WHO tests get momentum? Maybe here? (The subtitle gives it away.)
Politico, March 6, 2020: How testing failures allowed coronavirus to sweep the U.S.
The Trump administration’s decision to forgo a World Health Organization test and create its own had fateful consequences, experts say.
Excerpt: Why the United States declined to use the WHO test, even temporarily as a bridge until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could produce its own test, remains a perplexing question [TWAN emphasis] and the key to the Trump administration’s failure to provide enough tests to identify the coronavirus infections before they could be passed on, according to POLITICO interviews with dozens of viral-disease experts, former officials and some officials within the administration’s health agencies.
TWAN question: Between nine and eleven days later, Politifact, The New York Times, Snopes and FactCheck.org seem to have uncovered the mystery of the perplexing “refusal.” How did no one Politico spoke to know this standard protocol? We have not been able to find a correction for this information on Politico.
So look, this is all old news (our bread and butter.) But again, our purpose is and has always been to offer a lens through which we can take a step back, and revisit the outrage and indignation we felt about the topic du jour, and assess how valid that response actually is when the facts and details become known.
The point is this:
Nicely done. Never let the truth get in the way of inciting more acrimony between us.
So did we turn down those virus tests or not?
One of the nagging and most perplexing questions about our country’s response to the coronavirus centers around testing.
A few weeks ago, social media outrage focused on a version of this: “Why, oh why did we refuse an offer of tests for the WHO at the very early stages of this outbreak?” More colorful responses were along the lines of “Why T F did that idiot Trump refuse these tests?” Logical questions, regardless of their tone. More tests mean more information about those infected and more quarantining of carriers; people who could inadvertently but exponentially increase the rapid spread of this virus among the population at large.
To sum up: Why did we refuse the offer of tests from the WHO? We need tests! People are dying. We can’t treat them if we don’t know who has the virus!
At the time, we wondered if our government's “refusal” was perhaps based on the resources that exist in the United States, and the fact that the WHO is perhaps more concerned about countries with fewer resources, and far less sophisticated infrastructure. In other words, maybe the WHO spends more time addressing countries that basically need and count on their assistance to combat any kind of health emergency, not least of which would be a pandemic with the impact of coronavirus.
But back to the question of “refusing the tests.” Turns out, we did nothing of the kind. We didn’t refuse the offer from the WHO because it wasn’t made ; for all the reasons we theorized about, posted above.
Given the long and extensive outrage about this circumstance that never took place, here are are a couple of sources you can check if you’re somewhat dumbfounded by this information, as we were.
The New York Times, March 17, 2020: Did Federal Officials Really Question W.H.O. Tests for Coronavirus?
The article covers a number of topics; here is the salient point:
Excerpt: In any case, Mr. Biden’s assertion (at the Democratic debate on March 15) that the Trump administration refused tests offered by the W.H.O. appears to be wrong. The W.H.O. does not sell tests to wealthy countries, which usually prefer to make their own.
TWAN aside: “…appears to be wrong?” Given the sentence that follows that phrase, “appears” is an interesting choice.
Dr. Anne Schuchat, deputy principal director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, confirmed that the W.H.O. gave test kits “primarily to underresourced countries.”Another administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that the W.H.O. had never offered to sell or give tests to the United States.
Snopes, March 17, 2020: The United States "refused" COVID-19 diagnostic tests offered by the World Health Organization.
Excerpt: Although Trump’s political opponents and some media sources accused his administration of “refusing” to use the WHO test, Fauci’s comment and various credible news reports on the topic indicate that the CDC has a standard procedure for handling diagnostic tests during an outbreak, and that protocol doesn’t include using tests provided by WHO (or any other external organization). We therefore rate this claim “Mixture.”
TWAN Aside: Given the title of the story Snopes was purportedly fact-checking, and given the information they found, we’re a bit perplexed about how their assessment could have been “mixture” but that was their rating.
Here’s the summary that follows the narrative:
What's True
The U.S. did not use COVID-19 diagnostic tests produced by the World Health Organization (WHO) in favor of producing its own.
TWAN Aside: The more appropriate way to add his information to their overall assessment would have been this:
Based on historical protocol and the primary mission of the WHO, the U.S. does not use tests produced by the World Health Organization, in favor of producing its own.
What's False
The U.S. did not turn down an offer to use those tests (as no such offer was extended), nor was it unusual for the United States to design and produce its own diagnostic tests in lieu of those made elsewhere.
TWAN Aside: Another way to phrase this summary - one that doesn’t bury the lede - might have been: The U.S. did not receive an offer of diagnostic tests from the WHO (and therefore did not turn it down), nor was it unusual for the United States to design and produce its own diagnostic tests in lieu of those made elsewhere.
Fact Check.org, March 20, 2020: Biden, Trump Wrong About WHO Coronavirus Tests
More of what you’ve already read but this one adds a little jolt of how Trump was wrong, too. Think of that as a bonus, if you will.
Excerpt: Biden is right that the U.S. wanted to make its own test, but he leaves out important context — including the fact that many countries with the scientific capability designed their own tests, and that the WHO test kits are largely meant for less wealthy countries with weaker health systems. And he’s wrong that the U.S. ever “refused” a test from the WHO.
President Donald Trump also falsely claimed that the WHO test “was a bad test.” The test is highly accurate and has performed well.
Politifact, March 15, 2020: Biden falsely says Trump administration rejected WHO coronavirus test kits (that were never offered)
The entire story is linked above but here is their summary, and they call it “mostly false.” Well, sure, if by "mostly false" they mean “false.” We love the bullets they offer to save you the time and drudgery of reading a complete article.
IF YOUR TIME IS SHORT
- The WHO never offered to sell test kits to the United States.
- The CDC opted to develop its own coronavirus test and did not use the WHO’s protocol for the test.
- Other developed countries with advanced research capabilities developed their own tests.
We could go on – but we won’t. A google search of “U.S. refused WHO virus tests” will return plenty of stories to read.
Okay, one more but mostly to illustrate that absent the extremely unfortunate defects in the initial tests developed by the CDC, our response and timing was not entirely abysmal, based on the reported numbers:
The Washington Post, March 16, 2020: How U.S. coronavirus testing stalled: Flawed tests, red tape and resistance to using the millions of tests produced by the WHO
Excerpt: As early as Feb. 6, four weeks after the genome of the virus was published, the WHO had shipped 250,000 diagnostic tests to 70 laboratoriesaround the world, the agency said.
By comparison, the CDC at that time was shipping about 160,000 tests to labs across the nation— but then the manufacturing troubles were discovered, and most would be deemed unusable because they produced confusing results.
Moving on….
So where did the story about the administration refusing the WHO tests get momentum? Maybe here? (The subtitle gives it away.)
Politico, March 6, 2020: How testing failures allowed coronavirus to sweep the U.S.
The Trump administration’s decision to forgo a World Health Organization test and create its own had fateful consequences, experts say.
Excerpt: Why the United States declined to use the WHO test, even temporarily as a bridge until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could produce its own test, remains a perplexing question [TWAN emphasis] and the key to the Trump administration’s failure to provide enough tests to identify the coronavirus infections before they could be passed on, according to POLITICO interviews with dozens of viral-disease experts, former officials and some officials within the administration’s health agencies.
TWAN question: Between nine and eleven days later, Politifact, The New York Times, Snopes and FactCheck.org seem to have uncovered the mystery of the perplexing “refusal.” How did no one Politico spoke to know this standard protocol? We have not been able to find a correction for this information on Politico.
So look, this is all old news (our bread and butter.) But again, our purpose is and has always been to offer a lens through which we can take a step back, and revisit the outrage and indignation we felt about the topic du jour, and assess how valid that response actually is when the facts and details become known.
The point is this:
- To everyone who was livid about our outright refusal of help and testing kits from the WHO
- To everyone who used this as yet another example of the arrogance of our President and his administration
- To everyone who fomented hate and distrust by posting their venom about this "refusal"
Nicely done. Never let the truth get in the way of inciting more acrimony between us.