I was just listening to a planet money podcast about this....Paraphrasing...but S. Korea and the US discovered the virus on the same day. The CDC made a test asap...They applied for an FDA emergency wavier for the test so that it could get made quickly...It was granted and the process only took like a week where it might usually take months...The cdc started sending out these test to labs and a large amount of they were not working. So they had to make a new test, get it again approved, then again send it out. From what I read, this cost a couple of weeks time. Additionally, as
@Captain Brainstorm mentioned, the CDC is not a manufacturing facility, it has no capacity to make things on a scale like this. It took additional time for the FDA to approve private manufacturers to make these tests....this apparently was not the case in S. Korea where the private manufacturers were approved much quicker. I mean the FDA exists to slow things down, really its the entire point of it....thats how it protects people. Did korea or china circumvent their version of an FDA? No idea, but it wouldn't surprise me. Not saying I like what happened, but this is what happens when you rush people who probably arent used to being rushed like this...mistakes.
My wife mentioned that they are now very concerned with the supply of N95 masks, she is bleaching hers and reusing it. As is everyone else in the ER.