On January 10th 2020, Chinese scientists posted the genome of a strange new virus that was beginning to spread worldwide. Within a week, virologists from Berlin quickly developed the first diagnostic test to detect this novel coronavirus and was published by the World Health Organization, as the standard method to quickly test people around the world. By February, these test kits were shipped to almost 60 countries. For some reason, the United States was not one of them. Find out why on Episode 9 of The Great Fail.
Special Guest
Alexis Madrigal
Alexis Madrigal is a journalist in Oakland, California. He’s a staff writer at The Atlantic. Previously, he was the editor-in-chief of Fusion and and a staff writer at Wired. He’s a visiting scholar at the Information School at UC Berkeley.
He’s working on a book about Oakland and racial capitalism in urban America.
He’s been a visiting scholar a UC Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Technology, Science, and Medicine and an affiliate with Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society.
Episode Sources
The Dangerous Delays in U.S Coronavirus Testing Haven’t Stopped
How testing failures allowed coronavirus to sweep the U.S.
How the Coronavirus Became an American Catastrophe
Exclusive: The Strongest Evidence Yet That America is Botching Coronavirus Testing
The Official Coronavirus Numbers are Wrong and Everyone Knows It
Why the U.S. Still Can’t Do Enough Coronavirus Testing
What Went Wrong with Coronavirus Testing in the U.S.
Coronavirus Testing in the U.S.: What You Need to Know
Why Is the U.S. Behind on Coronavirus Testing?
What went wrong with coronavirus testing in the U.S.
Why It’s So Hard to Get Coronavirus Testing in the U.S. Right Now
U.S. Lags in Coronavirus Testing After Slow Response to Outbreak
Trump Administration Steps Up Coronavirus Testing Under Pressure
The 4 Key Reasons the U.S. Is So Behind on Coronavirus Testing
Here’s why the US is behind in coronavirus testing
The Question the CDC Won’t Answer About Coronavirus Testing
WHO and CDC never discussed providing international test kits to the US, global health agency says