Superbug expert calls lack of coronavirus tests a 'national scandal'

Dr. Matt McCarthy, an assistant professor of medicine at Weill Cornell and the author of Superbugs: The Race to Stop an Epidemic, thinks the United States needs to step up its coronavirus testing game.

In an appearance Monday on CNBC's Squawk Box, McCarthy cited the fact that only 32 people in New York state have been tested, calling the limited testing in the U.S. "a national scandal."

McCarthy, who practices at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, expects the number of cases in the U.S. to increase quickly in the next couple of weeks, but he said hospitals are "hamstrung" because they don't have access to the diagnostic test kits they need. In contrast, he said, other countries are making it look easy.

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"They are testing 10,000 a day in some countries, and we can't get this off the ground," McCarthy said.