Originally Posted by
CitizenBBN
Why did Germany get ahead on testing?
They don't have a central FDA/CDC with regulatory power. Seriously. They can recommend, but each of the 13 states has their own health system.
They approved the companies that do the same STD type tests the FDA has banned in the US. Those companies were able to ramp up quickly and have thus gotten home and localized testing out to the country.
When the doctor in Washington developed a test the FDA wouldn't even fast track reviewing it for approval. In Germany he could have worked with local officials to get to local labs and Washington would have had testing far quicker.
In the US we took weeks to leave it to just the CDC alone to develop the only approved test, and that was then flawed in production. We still won't use some of the mail order type tests available, and they are less accurate, and are just now getting FDA approvals for other testing methods.
So the German state, not really known for their libertarian ways, was less bureaucratic than the US system.
(All of that is from sourced material, in fact I think from more left leaning papers but I'd have to find the link)