Members-Only Article

The Achilles Heel of Testing

TOPSHOT - A medical personnel member takes samples on a woman at a "drive-thru" coronavirus testing lab set up by a local community center in West Palm Beach 75 miles north of Miami, on March 16, 2020. - Stocks tumbl... TOPSHOT - A medical personnel member takes samples on a woman at a "drive-thru" coronavirus testing lab set up by a local community center in West Palm Beach 75 miles north of Miami, on March 16, 2020. - Stocks tumbled on March 16, 2020 despite emergency central bank measures to prop up the virus-battered global economy, as countries across Europe started the week in lockdown and major US cities shut bars and restaurants. The virus has upended society around the planet, with governments imposing restrictions rarely seen outside wartime, including the closing of borders, home quarantine orders and the scrapping of public events including major sporting fixtures. (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP) (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images) MORE LESS

By Josh Marshall

July 13, 2020 1:41 p.m.

THE BACKCHANNEL

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I’ve noted repeatedly in recent weeks that for all the calamities of our national COVID response, we are actually doing a lot of testing.

As you can see, we’re doing a lot of tests and the growth over time has been steady and sustained.

Over the last seven days the average number of daily tests was 681,374, with the highest daily number 845,777. That’s a lot of tests. And we stack up fairly well against other large countries in Europe in terms of per capita testing.

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