Another testing deficiency that is seriously hampering the US pandemic response and no one is talking about: THE WEEKEND PROBLEM. A thread... 1/

I recently tried to get my son tested for COVID-19 because he developed a cough on a Saturday. Fewer centers are open on weekends. Even fewer if you exclude urgent cares or emergency rooms. Very few test children. Of the options remaining, none had a turnaround time of <1wk.

There has been sufficient time to train ample manpower (we know there are so many who are furloughed) to perform and run tests. Sufficient time and money can be generated to mass produce test kits, reagents, pipettes etc. The scientific community is desperate to do so.

So there is adequate time, money, brain power, energy, tech and human resources. What is lacking???- the will. And that's a huge problem because the pandemic does not rest on the weekend. In the last 4 months, we've LOST NEARLY A MONTH because of lack of testing on weekends.

By this time, we should have had built testing kiosks in every unused parking lot, at every corner. With every weekend day lost, several more are exposed to the virus. If you aren't sick enough to be in the hospital, you're more likely to expose others on the weekend.

With every weekend day lost, those who are awaiting tests and not able to work due to quarantine are losing their paychecks even if they end up not having COVID-19. And those who have it could get sicker even before they get tested.

I know what you're going to say... Don't other countries have similar problems on weekends? Well, not all. Also, the problems in the US are compounded by the very rigid 5 day week of most outpatient clinics/labs and by all the other shortcomings in the pandemic response.

So does that mean we have to give up weekends? If we quickly train enough people to swab patients correctly while wearing PPE and enough people to run PCRs, then we can still get some days of the week off, but we simply cannot afford to have so many labs closed on the weekend.

On the other hand, if we continue to operate with weekend holidays, we continue to lose days of contact tracing and paychecks. And gain several more infections. I know the labor movement fought hard for the weekend, but I don't think they accounted for life-changing pandemics.

I ended up taking my son to the emergency room where I knew the turnaround time was short, which was totally unnecessary waste or resources just for a swab. I became the ER patient that I hate the most, the one that has no emergency. GET RID OF THE WEEKEND (for testing)!