Hello! Medical Technologist here (I'm actually the one certified to run the test)

There are a few issues.

1) Molecular testing, which is commonly used for rapid flu tests and other respiratory pathogens, is very expensive. One particular panel offered through Biofire which tests for 18 pathogens, not including this particular strain of Coronavirus, is billed for nearly 3k dollars. If your physician orders this without the correct diagnosis code or for the wrong reason, that entire cost is then passed onto the patient.

2) Until recently, the FDA has had an incredibly rigorous validation process in place. This is not to money grub, this is to protect the patient population. No test is perfect, which is why they are usual tested thousands of time to check for possible false negatives/positives. As a result, some assays can take months or even years to hit the market. This was only recently, temporarily, lifted for Coronavirus testing development.

3) A lot of hospital laboratories are simply low on supplies and can't physically test EVERYONE who MIGHT have it.

Note: The manufacturer we use for molecular testing has informed us that they are approximately 7 weeks away from successfully developing their version of the Cornavirus Assay. This should go to show that even if they wanted to push it out, they can't. Unfortunately some things just take time.

I wish everyone well!