The Center for Disease Control is facing scrutiny over its Coronavirus testing flowchart which only considers a narrow set of circumstances before a patient is tested for the virus.
The circumstances are so limited that the testing for ‘unknown origin’ case confirmed in Northern California violated the flowchart because it instructs doctors to identify potential Coronavirus cases only if the patient has recently traveled to China or came into contact with someone who did.
In contrast, the CDC said the Solano Co. patient of the ‘unknown origin’ case “had no known exposure to the virus through travel or close contact with a known infected individual,” which naturally leads one to wonder why the CDC decided to test the patient in complete disregard of its own flowchart, which is its most up-to-date chart as of the time of this writing.
It’s also curious why the CDC is only considering “travel to China” given that there are numerous confirmed cases in Italy, which is now experiencing empty store shelves in certain regions as people stock up on food and supplies.
Not to mention the other confirmed cases in other countries.
The San Francisco Gate said it reportedly took four days to test the Solano Co. resident for the Coronavirus “since the patient did not fit the existing CDC criteria for COVID-19,” which is true given the flowchart above, but at one point someone made the decision to override the chart and test the patient.
“Upon admission, our team asked public health officials if this case could be COVID-19. We requested COVID-19 testing by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” according to a memo by UC Davis Medical Center, where the patient was taken. “Since the patient did not fit the existing CDC criteria for COVID-19, a test was not immediately administered.”
As previously mentioned, the patient was tested four days later and the results were positive, leading to scrutiny of the CDC’s criteria.
This CA case is utterly infuriating🔥. “Since patient did not fit the existing CDC criteria for #COVID19, a test was not immediately administered.” ➡️The utter lack of immediate 🧪testing may have caused cascade of exposures. This slip up may trigger an epidemic. #TESTVIRUSNOW! pic.twitter.com/EL4OvmZliK
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) February 27, 2020
Oh boy. UC Davis Medical Center suspected a coronavirus case and asked the CDC for a test: CDC said didn't fit criteria, and denied (UCD doesn't control testing). Turns out patient has it. https://t.co/4i6Pi03hZm
— professor everything is terrible (@elizabeth_joh) February 27, 2020
Suddenly everyone is realizing how ridiculously restrictive and dangerous CDC's coronavirus testing criteria is. Unless you've been to China in the last 14 days or are in close contact with someone who has, the CDC guidelines are not to test you even if you have all the symptoms. pic.twitter.com/gbAOCYdEIp
— Mash (@thisismash) February 27, 2020
If the CDC continues to test mainly patients who fall into the very narrow set of circumstances of the flowchart, there could be a lot more cases that go unreported.
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