HHS has launched an investigation into CDC’s first round of coronavirus diagnostic tests that many public health laboratories across the country were unable to use because one component was flawed.

The delay in testing capacity has slowed the U.S. response to the coronavirus, which public health experts say impeded the detection of what are now outbreaks in multiple states. Only this week is the pace of testing beginning to step up.


The situation with the CDC lab in Atlanta — apparently a manufacturing defect — has already spurred finger pointing between various federal health agencies and officials, who are all under intense scrutiny amid a major public health crisis. President Donald Trump has repeatedly tried to reassure the public — and the sinking stock market — that it’s under control.