The coronavirus had already begun to spiral out of control around the world when Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, during routine Senate testimony, made a surprising claim.
“As of today, I can announce that the CDC has begun working with health departments in five cities to use its flu surveillance network to begin testing individuals with flu-like symptoms for the Chinese coronavirus,” Azar said. “This effort will help see whether there is broader spread than we have been able to detect so far.”
But there were two major problems: The cities weren’t ready, and the tests didn’t work. Continue reading.