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I just want to be clear: while I understand and have similar frustrations with turnaround times for #COVIDăŒ19 testing, I'm afraid the angst is falling on the laboratories...and I do not feel that is fair or appropriate. (Small thread)
The clinical laboratory is full of living, breathing, intelligent human beings. The work takes skill and time. Often, labs are understaffed and there has been a shortage of trained clinical lab scientists FOR A WHILE. There are only so many tests a person can crank out in a day.
Even if a lab has all the staff they need, there's only so much testing that can be done when a) your instruments are full b) you cannot get the supplies you need to run these tests. Seems like many people think labs have unlimited access to very expensive instruments...nope.
Without a coordinated response, staffing, funding, and government support, labs are left to deliver the best patient care possible with what feels like no help. Yet across the US, AMAZING clinical microbiologists have stepped up and are figuring out DAILY how to get this done.
I'm talking frantically figuring out how to assemble swab kits because we can't get them anywhere, whipping up validations in record time to accommodate new source types and platforms, running across campus to pick up specimens by hand, working countless hours...
So yes, the testing situation is a mess, but the finger should be pointed at the failures of our government and lack of preparation and response that has gotten us to this point.
The people inside of these labs are working endlessly to diagnose people as quickly as possible. Just line the front line clinical staff, they are POURING THEIR HEARTS OUT. You should also know that this behind-the-scenes work ethic? It's not new. The lab is just rarely praised.
Don't confuse failure of our infrastructure with poor performance by clinical microbiologists.
@JClinMicro @ASMicrobiology @ASCLS #microbiology #Lab #testing #SARS_CoV_2
@JClinMicro @ASMicrobiology @ASCLS #microbiology #Lab #testing #SARS_CoV_2
