Silly Question of the Day: “Is testing for MLB diverting resources?”

The headline of the lead article in today’s Chicago Tribune asks (in the print edition): “Is testing for MLB diverting resources?”  Really?  That’s the most important question today?  If so, we must be in pretty good shape.  Because the amount of resources used by MLB for its testing program is pretty small compared to our whole country.  Especially since MLB hired a company that wasn’t already doing testing to set up a new testing program for MLB.  But even with that, one of the people quoted in the article worried that the MLB program was diverting swabs and other testing supplies that could be used elsewhere.  As I said, if the biggest question in the United States today is whether MLB is diverting swabs, etc., so it can test a few thousand people more frequently than otherwise, we are in pretty good shape.

Except, of course, we aren’t in good shape.  We need to test lots more.  We need to be able to test lots more people lots more frequently.  Testing, testing, testing is how we can stall this virus until we can get a vaccine.  But we’re not there.  The federal government¹ needs to ramp it up.  Big time.  We probably should have had this kind of testing capability in reserve.  But nobody in Washington, of either party or any administration, apparently cared enough, or had enough foresight, to do that. 

Because we didn’t, once this virus hit, we needed to get going on testing full-out.  We didn’t.  I’m not sure we are doing it even now.  But solution is not to tell MLB, or anybody else who wants to spend its own money, that they can’t set up their testing program to do what the rest of the country should be doing but isn‘t.
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¹ While the federal government should be leading this, state governments should be working on this, too, especially since it is apparent the feds aren’t doing a good job.  Instead complaining about what President Trump isn’t doing, they should be spending their time trying to figure out what they can do.