White House aides reportedly learned of the coronavirus test shortages from the media

If South Korea has become a model of how early, aggressive testing can help contain the COVID-19 coronavirus, the U.S. is at risk of become one of the cautionary tales. Nearly two months after the first COVID-19 case was discovered in the U.S., America's "testing capacity remains extraordinarily limited compared to where we should be," Harvard epidemiologist Michael Mina tells NPR.

"Some White House aides learned of complaints about the availability of testing from the media, not the public-health officials in their own government," The Wall Street Journal reports, citing an administration official familiar with the matter. "Only in the first week of March did discussions in a White House coronavirus task force about the testing shortfall take on a sense of urgency."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) started shipping test kits to state and local government labs in early February, with narrow criteria for who could get tested. When those tests proved to be flawed, the CDC recalled then in mid-February.

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By Feb. 24, state and local labs were begging the Food and Drug Administration to loosen rules preventing non-CDC labs from using their own tests. On Feb. 26, the CDC told state and local officials via email that its "testing capacity is more than adequate to meet current testing demands," the Journal reports. On Feb. 29, the FDA, under pressure, waived some of the rules to allow broader testing by state, academic, and private labs. Quickly, a run on crucial test kit ingredients depleted supplies.

"Health-care officials say the current state of testing reflects both technical and planning failures, as well as a broader failure of imagination," the Journal says. "Leaders including President Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar early in the outbreak appeared unable or unwilling to envision a crisis of the scale that has now emerged, and no one stepped up to effectively coordinate among federal agencies or the private-sector labs, medical providers, and manufacturers needed for a large-scale testing push, they say." Read more at The Wall Street Journal.