The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) never discussed providing coronavirus testing kits to the US in the early days of the outbreak.
By the end of February, the WHO had shipped hundreds of thousands of test kits around the world – but the US was not among them.
Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesperson for the WHO, told DailyMail.com that no discussions occurred between the UN health agency and the CDC about providing tests to the US – nor did the WHO offer to send tests.
‘This is consistent with experience since the US does not ordinarily rely on WHO for reagents or diagnostic tests because of sufficient domestic capacity,’ he said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the WHO says officials never discussed providing coronavirus testing kits to the CDC, nor did it offer to do so. Pictured: The CDC’s laboratory test kit for coronavirus
The agency says this is because, historically, the CDC has never relied on the WHO for creating diagnostic tests. Pictured: A kit for testing for coronavirus at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts, Wednesday
The same day the WHO published protocols for creating a test, the CDC said it was developing its own version of the test. Pictured: Medical workers prepare for a patient arrival to a mobile coronavirus testing lab at a hospital parking lot in Dallas on Tuesday
The WHO published guidelines on January 17 for any nation that was planning to manufacture tests for the virus.
However, the CDC told media on the same day that it had chosen to develop its own version of the test.
The CDC shipped its first batch of kits to laboratories across the US on February 5.
According to CNN, the WHO announced the next day that it had shipped 250,000 kits to at least 70 countries.
Less that a week later, several state labs said the CDC diagnostic was returning ‘inconclusive results.’
This forced the federal health agency to remanufacture components of the kit, although its unclear what defect occurred.
Ever since the CDC started to address this issue, delays have continued.
As of Wednesday, just 4,255 specimens have been tested for the virus that causes COVID-19 at CDC labs, according to the CDC’s website.
However, this does not include tests conducted at US public health laboratories, commercial laboratories and some hospitals.
Meanwhile, there have beenno reports of delays from countries that received testing kits from the WHO.
South Korea, by comparison, has tested more than 270,000 people – about 700 times as many people as the US has.
It’s unclear whether using the WHO’s protocol would have delayed testing the US.
There was also plenty of red tape for US public health labs in all 50 states to be granted authorization to test for coronavirus, which didn’t occur until March 9.
Ever since rolling out tests on February 5, delays have plagued the US including a component of the CDC kit not working. Pictured: Medical personnel secure a sample from a person at a drive-thru coronavirus testing station at a Kaiser Permanente facility on March 12
Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease at the National Institutes of Health, told CNN that looking back, the US should have had a backup, but defended the CDC’s tests.
‘If you look back and Monday morning quarterback it would have been nice to have had a backup,’ Dr Fauci said.
‘But what the CDC has done over many, many years when we have things like this is to develop their own test, which is always really a good test, and to roll it out in a way…where they give it to departments of public health.’
Worldwide, more than 208,000 people have been infected and more than 8,300 have died.
In the US, there are more than 7,300 cases have been confirmed in all 50 states and more than 100 people have died.