Story below suggests

• U.S. medical system poor planning, preparation, coordination
• U.S. residents have lower confidence in the med system

On 2 Apr 2020, XR also told me that NY residents showing mild symptoms were turned away from testing centers even though testing was already “free” (used to cost $3k)

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/us-nurses-tested-spreading-covid-19-coronavirus-12623210?cid=h3_referral_inarticlelinks_24082018_cna confirms

More than a month after the pandemic hit the United States, the persistent test shortages mean that health workers are treating patients while experiencing mild symptoms that could signal they are infected themselves, according to Reuters interviews with 13 nurses and two doctors who described testing shortages at their hospitals.

Many medical centres are testing only the workers with the most severe symptoms, according to the frontline workers and hospital officials. As a result, nurses and doctors risk infecting patients, colleagues and their families without knowing they are carrying the virus, medical experts say.

In Michigan, one of the few hospital systems conducting widespread staff testing found that more than 700 workers were infected with the coronavirus – more than a quarter of those tested.

A NY nurse continued to work because her fever – at 102 degrees Fahrenheit (38.9 degrees Celsius) – was just below the threshold set by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for sending health workers home. But she had the virus, an infection she confirmed when she took it upon herself to get tested at a private clinic.

The continued test shortages – even for the workers most at risk – is “scandalous” and a serious threat to the patients they treat, said Dr Art Caplan, a professor of bioethics at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.