February 16, 2021 • 20 mins
The process of getting a coronavirus vaccine appointment can seem like trying to get a PS5 with all available appointments gone before you know it. This can be especially hard if you might be helping out a parent or grandparent navigating the sites. Part of the problem is poorly designed sites and also too many vaccine sites from state, local, and hospitals all having their own web portals. Geoffrey Fowler, tech columnist at The Washington Post, joins us for tips on how to master the vaccine appointment websites.
Next, as cases were soaring last year, the government bought millions of dollars of rapid covid tests and distributed them to states, now we are finding out that millions of those tests have gone unused. One area of concern is that many of these tests are also reaching their six month expiration dates. States have cited accuracy concerns and also other challenges such as training and demand for not using them. Sarah Krouse, reporter at the WSJ, joins us for how millions of rapid tests have remained unused.
Finally, the rate of infections in the U.S. is starting to trend in the right direction despite the rise in concern with more transmissible covid variants. While we are seeing these better numbers, experts are divided on why and chalk it up to four possibilities. Good behavior and mask wearing, improved vaccine distribution, changing seasonality, and more cases going undetected because of less testing. Reis Thebault, reporter at the Washington Post, joins us why coronavirus cases are dropping.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Tuesday, February. I'm Oscar Ramirez in Los Angeles, and
this is the daily dive. The process of getting a
coronavirus vaccine appointment can seem like trying to get a
PS five, with all available appointments gone before you know it.
Part of the problem is poorly designed sites and also
(00:21):
too many vaccine sites from state, local and hospitals all
having their own web portals. Jeffrey Fowler, TEP calumnist at
The Washington Post joins US for tips on how to
master the vaccine appointment websites. Next, as cases were soaring
last year, the government bought millions of dollars of rapid
COVID tests and distributed them to states. Now we're finding
(00:42):
out that millions of these tests have gone unused. One
area of concern is that many of these tests are
also reaching their six month expiration dates. States have cited
accuracy concerns and also other challenges such as training and
demand for not using them. Sarah Krauss, reporter at the
Wall Street Journal, joins US for millions of rapid tests
have remained unused. Finally, the rate of infection in the
(01:04):
US is starting to trend in the right direction. While
we are seeing these better numbers, experts are divided on why,
and chalk it up to four possibilities good behavior and
mask wearing, improved vaccine distribution, changing seasonality, and more cases
going undetective because of less testing. Reese Tebow, reporter at
the Washington Post, joins us for why coronavirus cases are
(01:26):
dropping its moves without the noise. Let's dive in. He
had a friend who had gotten it, so he knew
it was possible, and he was calling places, going to pharmacies.
They were telling him to come back, they were telling
him to call again, go to the website, and then
they were also inudated with a bunch of people doing
(01:46):
those things. Joining us now is Jeffrey Fowler, tech columnist
at the Washington Post. Thanks for joining us, Jeff, you
got I wanted to talk about these vaccine appointment websites.
I know a lot of people are out there trying
to get vaccine appointments for themselves. Maybe you might be
helping a parent or a grandparents, so that adds another
layer of difficulty. But you know, while a lot of
(02:08):
people have had success and are getting their vaccines, a
lot of people haven't had that success, and they're getting
really frustrated with these sites. Jeff, you wrote a guide
best tips and practices on how to get that appointment,
So I suggest everybody go out and read that. There's
a lot of tips in there. But Jeff, start us
off and tell us why are these vaccine appointment websites
(02:29):
so poorly designed? Right now? I think where things went
wrong is that this is a case study and how
more technology does not always make things run better. So
the federal government is in charge of buying the vaccine
and giving it to the state. So the states made
their own websites systems for people to book appointments. Then
within states, counties made their own systems for people to
(02:52):
websites for people to book appointments. Then local hospitals and
clinics made their own systems with the supply they were getting.
On top of that. Now we have pharmacies this week,
in particular, opening up with a new direct supply from
the Feds in the cvs Walgreens with their own systems
and apps. Take away from this is like, there are
so many websites that you have to check. There's no
(03:13):
centralization going on here. So if you want to get
these really precious high demand appointment thoughts. In many cases,
you have to basically make it your full time job
to check websites all day long and pressure we load
on them and try to hunt out scraps of information
that might give you a little bit of an advantage
to book that a plane before somebody else does. It.
(03:35):
Actually has a lot in comment with snagging Beyonce ticket.
You know, the same skills that are involved being kind
of an extreme online shopper are involved here, except we're
asking senior citizens to do this. It's gonna most most
likely take multiple attempts to get through on this, So
don't be discouraged, and you've gotta stick with it. But
one of the things you mentioned is have all of
(03:56):
your information ready to be easily copy pasted, because in
a lot of these websites, every single time you have
to re enter that information. So there's all this information
that we discovered by experimenting with these websites that they
were going to be asked to enter in some cases
every time just to check if their appointments available. I'm
talking about you know, I D stuff your health insurance
(04:18):
code and cards and all that kind of stuff. One
of the things that would have made that go a
lot better for my parents we discovered later on, is
if they just typed it all into a word processing documents,
because you're gonna have to enter this stuff in so
many times. And look, a lot of seniors are a
little bit slower at typing, and it's not their fault,
you know, as you get older, it's harder to you know,
type really fast. So just put it in one place
so you have it you can copy and pasted in.
(04:40):
One of the other things you mentioned is don't be
afraid of using the phone. Everybody's you know, sending people
to the websites, but there are also people that can
help you out my phone. California has a line you
can call. Massachusetts has a line just for seniors to
help them. Definitely, you're going to see the pharmacies and
other people trying to direct people through the internet because
(05:01):
it's more efficient for them to have you, you know,
reloading their website all day to try to figure out
when new stuff comes online. But look, if you're a
senior and you're not comfortable with that, that's okay. Find
this phone number. You might have to stay you know,
on hold for a while or whatever it is, but
it is available to you. And related to that, like
look again if you're a senior that just doesn't have
the equipment or the expertise to do this, like look
(05:24):
for help. There are actually a lot of groups around
the country that are trying to sort of be vaccine
angels and and and connect people with resources. You know,
if you don't know where to find one, just call
your local public library. One of the lines that I
love in your article the people having the most success
getting employments are the ones with the best information. So
one of the key tips would be to sign up
(05:45):
for alerts, you know, so you know when the doses
are coming. You know that on this day they're going
to have doses. Let's get really busy on trying to
sign up. There's you know, various kinds of alerts available
from all the sorts of different authorities who have the vaccine.
In some cases, the alerts are actually sort of disappointing,
like in California, pretty much if you sign up for
(06:05):
the alert, all that you'll get is a text message
when your particular demographic is able to get a shot.
But other places they're getting more specific in the alerts
or beyond that it is all about information, So hunt
out these scraps of information you can about when a
new vaccine comes online, like for example, in Florida, you
(06:26):
get the vaccine to Publix, the supermarket that has a
pharmacy in it. People learned that public puts the new
appointment online at seven am every morning, So that meant
that I at sixty in Florida, people are there at
my website, presson reload, ready to go to get it. Ultimately,
that's how my parents got their shot. My mom was
just pressing reload on this site because she heard a
(06:48):
tip on the local TV news that they were going
to be adding some new slots that day. Last question
I have, I guess it's a twofold question, how long
did it take you to get your parents appointment? And
just like the last overall big tip, like what is
going to push people through on these sites? The most
it took us probably about two weeks once it was
really available to them in Massachusetts. And I learned a
(07:10):
lot from that process and I share that sort of
learnings from that in my piece. Let me give you
a two part answer to to your deceptively simple questions.
The thing that matters the most is being persistent. But
the thing we didn't talk about, but I just wanted to,
like flag that people will need to be careful about
is fraud. There are a lot of sketchy people out there,
and they're taking advantage of the lack of information in
(07:31):
this moment and the fear about it to try to
take advantage of seniors. Folks should definitely be very careful,
look at the source of the information. Start your journey
and figuring this out on authoritative websites, either on government
websites or if you don't know what those are, go
to the Washington Post. We've got links to all of them.
A p has links to all of them. And if
somebody you know send you an email or text messages
(07:52):
you about an appointment, that could be legit, but it
also might not be. So get on the phone and
call whoever said that they were reaching out to you
and make sure it's really them, because the last thing
you want to do is end up, you know, having
your identity stolen or someone taking the money or whatever.
Like it's sad, but it is a thing that folks
need to be aware of. Jeffrey Fowler tech calumnists at
(08:12):
the Washington Post. Thank you very much for joining us.
You bet if it's positive and usually pops pretty quickly
so you'll be able to see it. It really is
a can almost alike, I mean lighting with the thing
(08:33):
like almost like a pregnancy test in some respect. Joining
us now was Sarah Krauss, reporter at the Wall Street Journal.
Thanks for joining us, Sarah, Thanks for having me. As
cases were soaring at the end of last year, the
Trump administration sent out tens of millions of rapid response
COVID tests out to states, and now we're seeing that
a lot of these tests haven't been used. You know,
(08:56):
I think it's about thirty two million have not been
used totally, maybe about hundred and sixty million dollars. You know,
we want to use all the resources we can, obviously,
but this kind of seems to have gone very underused,
and there's a few different reasons, accuracy concerns, things like that.
But sir, tell us a little bit about what we're
seeing with these unused rapid response tests. So, as you say,
(09:16):
the federal government placed a large order of rapid antigen
tests towards the end of last year and distributed them
through January of this year, and the intent of those
tests was to be able to quickly diagnose infected individuals
and sort of start the contact tracing process early and
help them be able to isolate. The idea behind this
purchase was, you know, they could be used in schools
(09:37):
or jails or nursing homes and settings where there can
be outbreaks and where there are people gathering by virtue
of the type of establishment that it is. And what
we found when we checked in with all fifty states was,
you know, of the states that responded, there were a
sizeable number of tests that had gone unused for a
variety of different reasons. Some of that was concerns over accuracy,
(09:58):
that these are tests that aren't quite as accurate as
lab based tests, you know. At the same time, these
are tests that are good at picking up infectious individuals,
so those most likely to spread it. So there was
sort of a debate as to whether these were the
right tools to use relative to lab based tests, you know,
as well as other sort of regulatory type hurdles like
getting regulatory waivers to be able to use them in
(10:18):
settings like schools or jails, places where you wouldn't necessarily
be running you know, a diagnostic test in the past,
as well as just how to report the results. Some
of them may be approaching a six month expiration date,
so if they don't get used, they might be useless. Right,
how does that part of it work? Some of the
earliest tests that were sent out are coming up on
their six months expiration date. Now there's efforts to sort
(10:39):
of extend that and see you know that shelf life
can go beyond that six month period because you know,
we don't want these to be wasted. But yes, it
is the case that some of the earliest tests and
out are coming up against that initial expiration date. Most
of these tests are the test developed by Avid Labs
I think you're called by necks Now and they cost
about five dollars each. So tell us about the purchase
(10:59):
that we made on these. So these were some of
the earliest rapid tests. And when I say rapid, I
mean you get your results in about fifteen minutes um.
And these tests, the bynacks now tests that the federal
government purchased. They cost about five dollars. They're roughly the
size of a credit card. If you don't need a
lot of equipment or machinery to process a cartridge or
a test. The sort of appeal of them was that
they were these sort of easy to distribute, easy to
(11:21):
use type tests. You know, they had to be administered
by medical professionals, you know, but they were sort of
straightforward and a way to get really quick answers. And
even still it's the largest federal government bulk purchase of
COVID nineteen tests to date. So HHS spent about seven
hundred and sixty million to buy a hundred and fifty
million tests, and then they gave them out to the
states and gave pretty wide latitude with how states wanted
(11:42):
to use them, and that's part of what we discovered
in our reporting. Became a challenge is states had different
ideas of how valuable these tests were and were not,
or how appropriate they were to use in different settings.
And at the same time, they were battling sort of
high case counts, and so there was a concern about,
like in some place, branching beyond the known quantity that
is the lab based test to create workflows around using
(12:05):
these rapid tests. And part of that comes into, you know,
how do you report the results of this Because labs
have sort of built in infrastructure to do that with
these rapid test States had to create sort of a
reporting system to notify public health authorities of what they detected.
As you mentioned some of these other hurdles, you know,
let's say for schools. You know, it took a lot
of training to get these parts set up, so it
(12:26):
was just difficult to roll these out everywhere. Public health
experts say they are best used regularly on the same population,
you know, so like a one off test of someone
who doesn't have symptoms likely is not the best application
of this type of test um. But the pitch at
the time, or the idea at the time, was use
these for broad regular screening, because we're just trying to
weed out the people that are most likely to infect others.
(12:48):
So that was the rationale behind this. But the reality
of putting these tests to work, and putting them to
work quickly out a time when public health authorities are
strained and dealing with record case counts and preparing for vaccines,
they're ended up being a lot more sort of logistical
hurdles and sort of other fires to deal with along
the way. That got in the way of some of
this rollout. You mentioned it a bit ago, you know,
(13:09):
the accuracy of these tests was a concern, but they
do well in detecting people that do have high viral
loaws and are probably very contagious. I think at that
point Abbit Lab said their tests are about accurate or so,
but there's a lot more difficult when it comes to
people that were asymptomatic. These tests are you know, some
epicemmologists describe them as contagiousness tests. You know, so there
(13:32):
is value in using them to quickly detect people who
are infected and then quickly begin the contact tracing process.
And you know, as I talked to a current HHS
official who oversees the US testing efforts now, and they
are investing in other types of testing in other ways
to scale up the U s IS testing infrastructure. But
his point is, you know, public health is about trying
to balance imperfect solutions so that we can control the pandemic.
(13:53):
So is this the most accurate tests in the world. No,
Does it give you the information that you need to
quickly address the most problem cases. Yes, you know, so
there's this push pole, and I think that's what you
see playing out in the states across the country that
we're grappling with how best to use these and where
to use them. Sarah Krauss, reporter at the Wall Street Journal,
Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you. So
(14:23):
far this year, the number of weekly reported cases has
fallen by almost half, from more than five million cases
in the week of January four to two point six
million cases in the week starting February. February A joining
us now is Reese Tebow, reporter at the Washington Post.
Thanks for joining us, Reese, Thanks for having me Ascar.
(14:46):
We've been experiencing some kind of good news bad news
with regards to coronavirus. The numbers are trending better for
us right now, which is great. Obviously, we have this
kind of concern with these new variants that we're seeing
pop up all over the place. But as far as
we're seeing with rate of infections, they're dropping and I
think it's the lowest numbers we've seen since November. Now,
(15:07):
you know, everybody wants that secret sauce, so we know
what we're doing right, so we can keep doing those things.
But experts are a little mixed as to why they
think this is happening. They think they have like four
main reasons why it could be happening, But no one's
exactly sure. So Reese tell us a little bit about
what we're seeing, how are the numbers and what do
we think is causing them to go down? Right now,
(15:28):
experts are floating a number of possible explanations. So the
four I get into in my story are good behavior,
you know, people obeying social distancing guidelines, wearing masks, that
kind of thing, and then getting vaccines. We're seeing a
quickening pace of vaccinations. And then the possibility that the
(15:49):
data is actually lying to us, that it might be
obscuring something and that maybe cases aren't dropping quite as
much as we're seeing in the numbers. And then there's
this issue of seasonality. So the virus is a respiratory virus,
and we know that respiratory viruses tend to slow their
spread in warmer climates. Vaccine distribution, let's get into that
(16:10):
one a little bit. You know, we need about seventy
of people to getting vaccines for it to be super effective.
They say, I think we're about twelve percent at last count.
So what are we seeing there? The folks that are
chucking these following numbers up to vaccines. They're pointing to
the rising rates of vaccinations so last week we saw
about the average of one point six million vaccinations administered
(16:33):
per day. That's a pretty impressive number, especially considering President
Biden set the benchmark at one point five million, and
there were a lot of people who said after he
noted that that that might be a little lofty. But
last week we met and exceeded that. So that's a
good sign. But a lot of leading up a gemologists
have said it's just too soon for vaccines to be
(16:53):
having a major impact, you know, like you said, if
there were some forty million people who have received at
least their first dose, that's about twelve percent of the
US population. So vaccinations are probably helping a bit, but
I think it's too early to attribute this big dent
all to vaccines. Seasonality that's an interesting one, you know,
(17:13):
with respiratory diseases. Obviously in the cold months and winter
and all that, these things usually seem to climb up.
I guess we're going to be coming out of flu
season also pretty soon. So they're saying that this could
be very helpful to us, where we'll see a drop
in this from now until at least August or so.
With other respiratory viruses, we've seen that fall off when
(17:34):
the weather starts to improve, and kind of looking ahead
on the calendar, that's a positive point here. As for
right now, I don't know. In d C. It's not
very warm. It still feels very much like the winter.
We're seeing freezing temperatures everywhere right now. So that's much
more of you know, maybe in the weeks to come
we'll be having a positive impact. But as for impacting
the numbers right now at this moment ure the weeks prior,
(17:58):
that's a little harder sell. I think we're obviously very
focused on vaccine distribution, and what we might be seeing
is kind of a decrease in testing, maybe even a
reduced demand for testing as uh, you know, more people
kind of have gotten it and so and so. So
that's an interesting one. Help us walk through that one.
You remember, in the thick of the winter search, there
(18:20):
was just this explosion in cases, and there was a
similar explosion in people getting tested and coming out of
that winter search, you know, there was a backlog of
tests that didn't get processed over the holidays, and as
they were processed, we saw on the numbers there was
another spike. And folks have said that maybe a bit
of an artificial spike to sort of processing the backlogs.
(18:42):
But what it means is when we've seen in weeks
following the numbers go down, they're coming down from an
even higher peak. But it is still important to note
that testing actually has fallen off. It's fallen off steadily
over the last few weeks from I think in early
January there were about two million tests being processed per
day and now I think we're about one point five
(19:04):
one point six million per day. That is pointing to
the fact that you know, maybe fewer people are getting
tested and fewer cases are being captured, but you also
have to look at hospitalizations which are going down as well,
So you know, that's a reason to be hopeful that
this only plays a minor role, if one at all.
(19:24):
Reese Tebow, reporter at the Washington Post. Thank you very
much for joining us. Thanks so much for having the ascar.
That's it for today. Join us on social media at
Daily Dive pod and book, Twitter, and Instagram. Because a
comment give us a rating to tell us the stories
(19:46):
that you're interested in. Follow us and I Heard radio,
or subscribe where ever you get your podcast. This episode
of The Daily Divers, produced by Victor Wright and engineered
by Tony Sarrentino, him Oscar Ramirez, And this was your
daily die.
It's Tuesday, February. I'm Oscar Ramirez in Los Angeles, and
this is the daily dive. The process of getting a
coronavirus vaccine appointment can seem like trying to get a
PS five, with all available appointments gone before you know it.
Part of the problem is poorly designed sites and also
(00:21):
too many vaccine sites from state, local and hospitals all
having their own web portals. Jeffrey Fowler, TEP calumnist at
The Washington Post joins US for tips on how to
master the vaccine appointment websites. Next, as cases were soaring
last year, the government bought millions of dollars of rapid
COVID tests and distributed them to states. Now we're finding
(00:42):
out that millions of these tests have gone unused. One
area of concern is that many of these tests are
also reaching their six month expiration dates. States have cited
accuracy concerns and also other challenges such as training and
demand for not using them. Sarah Krauss, reporter at the
Wall Street Journal, joins US for millions of rapid tests
have remained unused. Finally, the rate of infection in the
(01:04):
US is starting to trend in the right direction. While
we are seeing these better numbers, experts are divided on why,
and chalk it up to four possibilities good behavior and
mask wearing, improved vaccine distribution, changing seasonality, and more cases
going undetective because of less testing. Reese Tebow, reporter at
the Washington Post, joins us for why coronavirus cases are
(01:26):
dropping its moves without the noise. Let's dive in. He
had a friend who had gotten it, so he knew
it was possible, and he was calling places, going to pharmacies.
They were telling him to come back, they were telling
him to call again, go to the website, and then
they were also inudated with a bunch of people doing
(01:46):
those things. Joining us now is Jeffrey Fowler, tech columnist
at the Washington Post. Thanks for joining us, Jeff, you
got I wanted to talk about these vaccine appointment websites.
I know a lot of people are out there trying
to get vaccine appointments for themselves. Maybe you might be
helping a parent or a grandparents, so that adds another
layer of difficulty. But you know, while a lot of
(02:08):
people have had success and are getting their vaccines, a
lot of people haven't had that success, and they're getting
really frustrated with these sites. Jeff, you wrote a guide
best tips and practices on how to get that appointment,
So I suggest everybody go out and read that. There's
a lot of tips in there. But Jeff, start us
off and tell us why are these vaccine appointment websites
(02:29):
so poorly designed? Right now? I think where things went
wrong is that this is a case study and how
more technology does not always make things run better. So
the federal government is in charge of buying the vaccine
and giving it to the state. So the states made
their own websites systems for people to book appointments. Then
within states, counties made their own systems for people to
(02:52):
websites for people to book appointments. Then local hospitals and
clinics made their own systems with the supply they were getting.
On top of that. Now we have pharmacies this week,
in particular, opening up with a new direct supply from
the Feds in the cvs Walgreens with their own systems
and apps. Take away from this is like, there are
so many websites that you have to check. There's no
(03:13):
centralization going on here. So if you want to get
these really precious high demand appointment thoughts. In many cases,
you have to basically make it your full time job
to check websites all day long and pressure we load
on them and try to hunt out scraps of information
that might give you a little bit of an advantage
to book that a plane before somebody else does. It.
(03:35):
Actually has a lot in comment with snagging Beyonce ticket.
You know, the same skills that are involved being kind
of an extreme online shopper are involved here, except we're
asking senior citizens to do this. It's gonna most most
likely take multiple attempts to get through on this, So
don't be discouraged, and you've gotta stick with it. But
one of the things you mentioned is have all of
(03:56):
your information ready to be easily copy pasted, because in
a lot of these websites, every single time you have
to re enter that information. So there's all this information
that we discovered by experimenting with these websites that they
were going to be asked to enter in some cases
every time just to check if their appointments available. I'm
talking about you know, I D stuff your health insurance
(04:18):
code and cards and all that kind of stuff. One
of the things that would have made that go a
lot better for my parents we discovered later on, is
if they just typed it all into a word processing documents,
because you're gonna have to enter this stuff in so
many times. And look, a lot of seniors are a
little bit slower at typing, and it's not their fault,
you know, as you get older, it's harder to you know,
type really fast. So just put it in one place
so you have it you can copy and pasted in.
(04:40):
One of the other things you mentioned is don't be
afraid of using the phone. Everybody's you know, sending people
to the websites, but there are also people that can
help you out my phone. California has a line you
can call. Massachusetts has a line just for seniors to
help them. Definitely, you're going to see the pharmacies and
other people trying to direct people through the internet because
(05:01):
it's more efficient for them to have you, you know,
reloading their website all day to try to figure out
when new stuff comes online. But look, if you're a
senior and you're not comfortable with that, that's okay. Find
this phone number. You might have to stay you know,
on hold for a while or whatever it is, but
it is available to you. And related to that, like
look again if you're a senior that just doesn't have
the equipment or the expertise to do this, like look
(05:24):
for help. There are actually a lot of groups around
the country that are trying to sort of be vaccine
angels and and and connect people with resources. You know,
if you don't know where to find one, just call
your local public library. One of the lines that I
love in your article the people having the most success
getting employments are the ones with the best information. So
one of the key tips would be to sign up
(05:45):
for alerts, you know, so you know when the doses
are coming. You know that on this day they're going
to have doses. Let's get really busy on trying to
sign up. There's you know, various kinds of alerts available
from all the sorts of different authorities who have the vaccine.
In some cases, the alerts are actually sort of disappointing,
like in California, pretty much if you sign up for
(06:05):
the alert, all that you'll get is a text message
when your particular demographic is able to get a shot.
But other places they're getting more specific in the alerts
or beyond that it is all about information, So hunt
out these scraps of information you can about when a
new vaccine comes online, like for example, in Florida, you
(06:26):
get the vaccine to Publix, the supermarket that has a
pharmacy in it. People learned that public puts the new
appointment online at seven am every morning, So that meant
that I at sixty in Florida, people are there at
my website, presson reload, ready to go to get it. Ultimately,
that's how my parents got their shot. My mom was
just pressing reload on this site because she heard a
(06:48):
tip on the local TV news that they were going
to be adding some new slots that day. Last question
I have, I guess it's a twofold question, how long
did it take you to get your parents appointment? And
just like the last overall big tip, like what is
going to push people through on these sites? The most
it took us probably about two weeks once it was
really available to them in Massachusetts. And I learned a
(07:10):
lot from that process and I share that sort of
learnings from that in my piece. Let me give you
a two part answer to to your deceptively simple questions.
The thing that matters the most is being persistent. But
the thing we didn't talk about, but I just wanted to,
like flag that people will need to be careful about
is fraud. There are a lot of sketchy people out there,
and they're taking advantage of the lack of information in
(07:31):
this moment and the fear about it to try to
take advantage of seniors. Folks should definitely be very careful,
look at the source of the information. Start your journey
and figuring this out on authoritative websites, either on government
websites or if you don't know what those are, go
to the Washington Post. We've got links to all of them.
A p has links to all of them. And if
somebody you know send you an email or text messages
(07:52):
you about an appointment, that could be legit, but it
also might not be. So get on the phone and
call whoever said that they were reaching out to you
and make sure it's really them, because the last thing
you want to do is end up, you know, having
your identity stolen or someone taking the money or whatever.
Like it's sad, but it is a thing that folks
need to be aware of. Jeffrey Fowler tech calumnists at
(08:12):
the Washington Post. Thank you very much for joining us.
You bet if it's positive and usually pops pretty quickly
so you'll be able to see it. It really is
a can almost alike, I mean lighting with the thing
(08:33):
like almost like a pregnancy test in some respect. Joining
us now was Sarah Krauss, reporter at the Wall Street Journal.
Thanks for joining us, Sarah, Thanks for having me. As
cases were soaring at the end of last year, the
Trump administration sent out tens of millions of rapid response
COVID tests out to states, and now we're seeing that
a lot of these tests haven't been used. You know,
(08:56):
I think it's about thirty two million have not been
used totally, maybe about hundred and sixty million dollars. You know,
we want to use all the resources we can, obviously,
but this kind of seems to have gone very underused,
and there's a few different reasons, accuracy concerns, things like that.
But sir, tell us a little bit about what we're
seeing with these unused rapid response tests. So, as you say,
(09:16):
the federal government placed a large order of rapid antigen
tests towards the end of last year and distributed them
through January of this year, and the intent of those
tests was to be able to quickly diagnose infected individuals
and sort of start the contact tracing process early and
help them be able to isolate. The idea behind this
purchase was, you know, they could be used in schools
(09:37):
or jails or nursing homes and settings where there can
be outbreaks and where there are people gathering by virtue
of the type of establishment that it is. And what
we found when we checked in with all fifty states was,
you know, of the states that responded, there were a
sizeable number of tests that had gone unused for a
variety of different reasons. Some of that was concerns over accuracy,
(09:58):
that these are tests that aren't quite as accurate as
lab based tests, you know. At the same time, these
are tests that are good at picking up infectious individuals,
so those most likely to spread it. So there was
sort of a debate as to whether these were the
right tools to use relative to lab based tests, you know,
as well as other sort of regulatory type hurdles like
getting regulatory waivers to be able to use them in
(10:18):
settings like schools or jails, places where you wouldn't necessarily
be running you know, a diagnostic test in the past,
as well as just how to report the results. Some
of them may be approaching a six month expiration date,
so if they don't get used, they might be useless. Right,
how does that part of it work? Some of the
earliest tests that were sent out are coming up on
their six months expiration date. Now there's efforts to sort
(10:39):
of extend that and see you know that shelf life
can go beyond that six month period because you know,
we don't want these to be wasted. But yes, it
is the case that some of the earliest tests and
out are coming up against that initial expiration date. Most
of these tests are the test developed by Avid Labs
I think you're called by necks Now and they cost
about five dollars each. So tell us about the purchase
(10:59):
that we made on these. So these were some of
the earliest rapid tests. And when I say rapid, I
mean you get your results in about fifteen minutes um.
And these tests, the bynacks now tests that the federal
government purchased. They cost about five dollars. They're roughly the
size of a credit card. If you don't need a
lot of equipment or machinery to process a cartridge or
a test. The sort of appeal of them was that
they were these sort of easy to distribute, easy to
(11:21):
use type tests. You know, they had to be administered
by medical professionals, you know, but they were sort of
straightforward and a way to get really quick answers. And
even still it's the largest federal government bulk purchase of
COVID nineteen tests to date. So HHS spent about seven
hundred and sixty million to buy a hundred and fifty
million tests, and then they gave them out to the
states and gave pretty wide latitude with how states wanted
(11:42):
to use them, and that's part of what we discovered
in our reporting. Became a challenge is states had different
ideas of how valuable these tests were and were not,
or how appropriate they were to use in different settings.
And at the same time, they were battling sort of
high case counts, and so there was a concern about,
like in some place, branching beyond the known quantity that
is the lab based test to create workflows around using
(12:05):
these rapid tests. And part of that comes into, you know,
how do you report the results of this Because labs
have sort of built in infrastructure to do that with
these rapid test States had to create sort of a
reporting system to notify public health authorities of what they detected.
As you mentioned some of these other hurdles, you know,
let's say for schools. You know, it took a lot
of training to get these parts set up, so it
(12:26):
was just difficult to roll these out everywhere. Public health
experts say they are best used regularly on the same population,
you know, so like a one off test of someone
who doesn't have symptoms likely is not the best application
of this type of test um. But the pitch at
the time, or the idea at the time, was use
these for broad regular screening, because we're just trying to
weed out the people that are most likely to infect others.
(12:48):
So that was the rationale behind this. But the reality
of putting these tests to work, and putting them to
work quickly out a time when public health authorities are
strained and dealing with record case counts and preparing for vaccines,
they're ended up being a lot more sort of logistical
hurdles and sort of other fires to deal with along
the way. That got in the way of some of
this rollout. You mentioned it a bit ago, you know,
(13:09):
the accuracy of these tests was a concern, but they
do well in detecting people that do have high viral
loaws and are probably very contagious. I think at that
point Abbit Lab said their tests are about accurate or so,
but there's a lot more difficult when it comes to
people that were asymptomatic. These tests are you know, some
epicemmologists describe them as contagiousness tests. You know, so there
(13:32):
is value in using them to quickly detect people who
are infected and then quickly begin the contact tracing process.
And you know, as I talked to a current HHS
official who oversees the US testing efforts now, and they
are investing in other types of testing in other ways
to scale up the U s IS testing infrastructure. But
his point is, you know, public health is about trying
to balance imperfect solutions so that we can control the pandemic.
(13:53):
So is this the most accurate tests in the world. No,
Does it give you the information that you need to
quickly address the most problem cases. Yes, you know, so
there's this push pole, and I think that's what you
see playing out in the states across the country that
we're grappling with how best to use these and where
to use them. Sarah Krauss, reporter at the Wall Street Journal,
Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you. So
(14:23):
far this year, the number of weekly reported cases has
fallen by almost half, from more than five million cases
in the week of January four to two point six
million cases in the week starting February. February A joining
us now is Reese Tebow, reporter at the Washington Post.
Thanks for joining us, Reese, Thanks for having me Ascar.
(14:46):
We've been experiencing some kind of good news bad news
with regards to coronavirus. The numbers are trending better for
us right now, which is great. Obviously, we have this
kind of concern with these new variants that we're seeing
pop up all over the place. But as far as
we're seeing with rate of infections, they're dropping and I
think it's the lowest numbers we've seen since November. Now,
(15:07):
you know, everybody wants that secret sauce, so we know
what we're doing right, so we can keep doing those things.
But experts are a little mixed as to why they
think this is happening. They think they have like four
main reasons why it could be happening, But no one's
exactly sure. So Reese tell us a little bit about
what we're seeing, how are the numbers and what do
we think is causing them to go down? Right now,
(15:28):
experts are floating a number of possible explanations. So the
four I get into in my story are good behavior,
you know, people obeying social distancing guidelines, wearing masks, that
kind of thing, and then getting vaccines. We're seeing a
quickening pace of vaccinations. And then the possibility that the
(15:49):
data is actually lying to us, that it might be
obscuring something and that maybe cases aren't dropping quite as
much as we're seeing in the numbers. And then there's
this issue of seasonality. So the virus is a respiratory virus,
and we know that respiratory viruses tend to slow their
spread in warmer climates. Vaccine distribution, let's get into that
(16:10):
one a little bit. You know, we need about seventy
of people to getting vaccines for it to be super effective.
They say, I think we're about twelve percent at last count.
So what are we seeing there? The folks that are
chucking these following numbers up to vaccines. They're pointing to
the rising rates of vaccinations so last week we saw
about the average of one point six million vaccinations administered
(16:33):
per day. That's a pretty impressive number, especially considering President
Biden set the benchmark at one point five million, and
there were a lot of people who said after he
noted that that that might be a little lofty. But
last week we met and exceeded that. So that's a
good sign. But a lot of leading up a gemologists
have said it's just too soon for vaccines to be
(16:53):
having a major impact, you know, like you said, if
there were some forty million people who have received at
least their first dose, that's about twelve percent of the
US population. So vaccinations are probably helping a bit, but
I think it's too early to attribute this big dent
all to vaccines. Seasonality that's an interesting one, you know,
(17:13):
with respiratory diseases. Obviously in the cold months and winter
and all that, these things usually seem to climb up.
I guess we're going to be coming out of flu
season also pretty soon. So they're saying that this could
be very helpful to us, where we'll see a drop
in this from now until at least August or so.
With other respiratory viruses, we've seen that fall off when
(17:34):
the weather starts to improve, and kind of looking ahead
on the calendar, that's a positive point here. As for
right now, I don't know. In d C. It's not
very warm. It still feels very much like the winter.
We're seeing freezing temperatures everywhere right now. So that's much
more of you know, maybe in the weeks to come
we'll be having a positive impact. But as for impacting
the numbers right now at this moment ure the weeks prior,
(17:58):
that's a little harder sell. I think we're obviously very
focused on vaccine distribution, and what we might be seeing
is kind of a decrease in testing, maybe even a
reduced demand for testing as uh, you know, more people
kind of have gotten it and so and so. So
that's an interesting one. Help us walk through that one.
You remember, in the thick of the winter search, there
(18:20):
was just this explosion in cases, and there was a
similar explosion in people getting tested and coming out of
that winter search, you know, there was a backlog of
tests that didn't get processed over the holidays, and as
they were processed, we saw on the numbers there was
another spike. And folks have said that maybe a bit
of an artificial spike to sort of processing the backlogs.
(18:42):
But what it means is when we've seen in weeks
following the numbers go down, they're coming down from an
even higher peak. But it is still important to note
that testing actually has fallen off. It's fallen off steadily
over the last few weeks from I think in early
January there were about two million tests being processed per
day and now I think we're about one point five
(19:04):
one point six million per day. That is pointing to
the fact that you know, maybe fewer people are getting
tested and fewer cases are being captured, but you also
have to look at hospitalizations which are going down as well,
So you know, that's a reason to be hopeful that
this only plays a minor role, if one at all.
(19:24):
Reese Tebow, reporter at the Washington Post. Thank you very
much for joining us. Thanks so much for having the ascar.
That's it for today. Join us on social media at
Daily Dive pod and book, Twitter, and Instagram. Because a
comment give us a rating to tell us the stories
(19:46):
that you're interested in. Follow us and I Heard radio,
or subscribe where ever you get your podcast. This episode
of The Daily Divers, produced by Victor Wright and engineered
by Tony Sarrentino, him Oscar Ramirez, And this was your
daily die.
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