Take your best guess.

[Jolly]

Nationwide shortage of RSV kits. Flu ain't looking too good, either. Docs are taking their best guesses.

We badly need to do two things...

1. More domestic production. Back in the 1980's, favorable tax laws meant that a lot of diagnostic stuff was produced in Puerto Rico. Now it's all offshore. Bring it back.

2. CLIA requires waaaay too much method comparison between kits before use. For simple qualitative kits, as long as they are FDA certified, controlling the kit before use with positive and negative controls should be sufficient. Today, we burn through three or four kits before we can turn out patient results.

[George K]

Just an aside - G2 and G3 came down with RSV a couple of weeks ago. The four-month-old was sicker than hell.

Gave it to Mrs. George too.

[Jolly]

Result of COVID lockdowns, you reckon?

[George K]

@Jolly said in Take your best guess.:

Result of COVID lockdowns, you reckon?

I tend to doubt it. Certainly the 4-month-old was subjected any kind of lockdown. G2 visited us frequently, and hadn't been attending school yet - he just turned 4 years old.

[Jolly]

The reason I said that about lockdowns...Pediatricians are seeing more communicable diseases than usual this year...RSV, Flu, Strep throat. During the height of COVID, they saw a lot less.

I'm just wondering...As life has gotten back to normal, maybe we're getting a couple if season's worth of communicable diseases in one season.

[taiwan_girl]

@Jolly I read something like that also. Last couple of years, not much communicating diseases due to isolation, masking, super careful about hand washing, etc.