Former CDC official: coronavirus testing 'should’ve started months ago'

The number of coronavirus cases is toppling over 200,000 globally. Former Center for Disease Control and Prevention Epidemic Intelligence Officer & Chief Medical Officer at Osmosi Dr. Rishi Desai joins Yahoo Finance's Zack Guzman to discuss.

Video Transcript

ZACK GUZMAN: I want to discuss this a little bit more in terms of whether or not we might even need a national lockdown if more states move to follow the example set by California and now New York. Joining us is Dr. Rishi Desai. He's a former Center for Disease Control and Prevention epidemic intelligence officer, and he joins us now. Dr. Desai, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us today.

I wanted to start with what we were talking about on yesterday's show, just in terms of the response we're seeing out of the US and how it compares with some other countries. South Korea and the US both had their first case on the same day. The numbers we brought to you yesterday was that that country was able to conduct 290,000 tests over its first seven weeks while the US was only able to conduct 60,000, not at all close to what we saw over there.

The CDC right now has been blaming the FDA for being potentially behind that reason for not getting more tests out there. I'd be curious to get your take on why that happened and how that leaves us in a vulnerable spot now.

RISHI DESAI: Yeah. One other thing that you should also keep in mind is that South Korea's population is 1/6 of our population, so we should not match them, but we should be six times more than where they're at. And so you know, this finger-pointing between CDC, and FDA, and maybe WHO-- it's not helpful right now. So what we need to do is figure out why we didn't respond months ago with the beginning of aggressive testing that we're starting to get behind now. It should have happened months and months ago.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah. I mean, well, we're there now. I guess it doesn't matter much. You'd want to have those things fixed moving forward if we do see another pandemic like this. But right now, I mean, I had my brother on the show yesterday. He tested positive. We're still awaiting results for my parents. They're on day six of waiting. And we just think about how little you can do when you don't have the information that you need.

I mean, they're trying to self-quarantine just to be safe here. But more and more people struggling to get these tests. We're looking at the case count right now, and we're on pace to surpass Italy just on the way that these cases have been growing. So what more can be done at this point, if we've already botched the testing phase here in the US, and how do we resolve it moving forward?

RISHI DESAI: Yeah. We need to quickly upscale things like home testing, testing through drive-throughs. These are things that other countries have done and we can do the same here, and we need to do the same here. We need to do that for two reasons. One, you want to flatten the curve, and people have heard that catch-phrase. But to recap what that means is that you want to make sure that as many people who have COVID-19 limit that spread.

You know, a lot of people don't have severe symptoms but have few symptoms, and they're rapidly spreading it. And the quarantines and the shutdown you talked about in New York and California-- that needs to immediately-- and I mean today-- become federal. We know that this works, and effectively, every single country ends up doing that anyway.

But the thing-- the longer you take to do it, the longer you have to do it for. And so--

ZACK GUZMAN: And one--

RISHI DESAI: Yeah, go ahead.

ZACK GUZMAN: I mean, one of the other things, too, we've been talking about and the doctors on the frontlines trying to defend against this, as well. The CDC gave an update because there's a shortage of N95 masks in some of these places where you're trying to battle this. Those are the ones that are actually needed if you are a doctor. They actually fit it to your face properly and make sure that you can't be exposed to the virus.

Since we're hearing more about how it could be spread airborne, what do you make of that shortage when the CDC's giving updates saying that you could use a bandanna at all costs? Just doesn't sound like any of the doctors on the frontlines are really trusting the information they're getting right now from the CDC.

RISHI DESAI: Yeah. I mean, our health care workers-- and this is what I mean by raise the line. We really need to make sure our health care capacity is at full capacity. One health care worker goes down because they're wearing a bandanna, what does that mean? They're out for two to four weeks. Maybe they don't come back because they get sick, really sick.

That also means that everyone that they're having lunch with, their significant other who may also be in health care, all of their workmates are all quarantined. All of a sudden, your ER is gutted. All of the people are either out quarantined or out sick. So now, you've got patients going to hospitals that essentially are not staffed. You know, basically, a hospital without a staff is like an expensive hotel.

And so at that point, we're in panic mode because our health care is really not doing the job it needs to do. So when you're talking about bandannas and scarves? That's a really, really abysmal recommendation because we know scientifically, those things don't work against this pathogen. And putting people at risk is very dangerous and a scary message.

SEANA SMITH: Dr. Desai, Seana Smith here. I have a question just in terms of the timeline for some of the vaccines and some of the treatments. We heard President Trump and his administration. They're really trying to push the timeline. There's been some pushback from those like you in the medical field who say that you don't want to rush this, that if we rush this, then it could be very risky on the other side. What is your read on that situation?

RISHI DESAI: Yeah, there are a couple of drugs that are in trials-- phase II, phase III trials. There's also some vaccines in early phase trials. I think those two categories are slightly different. When you're giving a medication-- even today, we've used some of those medications on a compassionate care basis, meaning that a patient can, today, receive those medications if they're critically ill and there's really no other option.

So that is possible, and I think that that's absolutely fine and warranted. I think getting it through the FDA as quick as possible and as safely as possible is a balancing act. And so I appreciate the concern of trying to get it through. I also want to make sure people are clear that we do these things, these trials, to keep people safe from side effects and other things like that could be equally dangerous.

On the vaccine side, this is an international effort. And you know, right now, we have a couple of candidates in trials, like I mentioned. Some international ones, as well. We're likely looking, based on Dr. Fauci's recommendations, at 2021. But really, this whole game is, how do we keep ourselves as safe as possible by raising the line, flattening the curve so that we don't see the terrible outcomes and the ventilator shortages and the ECMO shortages, things like that?

ZACK GUZMAN: All right. Dr. Desai bringing us that. Appreciate you taking the time, sir.