Doctors warn of shortage of critical chemicals for virus testing

Testing in the US has been remarkably halting so far, with failures on local and national levels.

Now, it looks like officials have hit another roadblock.

Statnews reports:

The push to increase testing in the U.S. for the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19 has hit a new stumbling block: shortages of key chemicals needed to start up and run the tests.

In particular, one key product, made by the diagnostics testing giant Qiagen, is in dwindling supply. The chemical is used to isolate the virus’ genetic material, or RNA, so that it can be tested.

This is just another indication that our healthcare system isn’t coping with the pandemic well. And we haven’t seen the worst yet.

Statnews:

…the chemical for extracting RNA did not seem to be the only product running short as the U.S. tries to quickly ramp up its testing capacity. On Friday, Christopher Freeman, a laboratory administrator at Columbia University, sent an email to colleagues pleading for another product, used for storing RNA, made by Invitrogen, a unit of lab tools giant Thermo Fisher. He said his lab hoped to validate its Covid-19 test over the weekend, but that it needed the “a basic yet critical reagent that is required as per the FDA submission.” He asked if any laboratory had the reagent stocked in its laboratory.

President Trump just signed an executive order that seeks to end our reliance on foreign medical supplies. That’s a step in the right direction.