On January 27th, South Korean health officialssummoned representatives from more than20...
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On January 27th, South Korean health officials
summoned representatives from more than
20 medical companies to put in place
a national testing program. It was such an urgent
request that they just met in a conference room at one of
the train stations in Seoul. The head of the equivalent of
the CDC, he basically said, "Manufacture me
these tests now and forget
about the approval process." You know, "Start using them,
start testing. "We will come back
to make sure it's accurate, but we'll do that while
you're already in the field." Within a matter of days
after that, the first diagnostic test kit
was approved, and it's a process
that typically can take upwards of a year. There were four cases
at the time, and it would be another few
weeks before there was a death, but they really felt the need
for diagnostic testing to be able to see
where the problem was and to deal with the threat
summoned representatives from more than
20 medical companies to put in place
a national testing program. It was such an urgent
request that they just met in a conference room at one of
the train stations in Seoul. The head of the equivalent of
the CDC, he basically said, "Manufacture me
these tests now and forget
about the approval process." You know, "Start using them,
start testing. "We will come back
to make sure it's accurate, but we'll do that while
you're already in the field." Within a matter of days
after that, the first diagnostic test kit
was approved, and it's a process
that typically can take upwards of a year. There were four cases
at the time, and it would be another few
weeks before there was a death, but they really felt the need
for diagnostic testing to be able to see
where the problem was and to deal with the threat
Full Transcript
00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:03.989
On January 27th,
00:00:03.034 --> 00:00:05.236
South Korean health officials
summoned representatives
00:00:05.027 --> 00:00:07.306
from more than
20 medical companies
00:00:07.338 --> 00:00:11.109
to put in place
a national testing program.
00:00:11.143 --> 00:00:14.001
It was such an urgent
request that they just met
00:00:14.113 --> 00:00:18.351
in a conference room at one of
the train stations in Seoul.
00:00:18.384 --> 00:00:22.588
The head of the equivalent of
the CDC, he basically said,
00:00:22.062 --> 00:00:26.391
"Manufacture me
these tests now
00:00:26.424 --> 00:00:28.493
and forget
about the approval process."
00:00:28.527 --> 00:00:30.296
You know, "Start using them,
start testing.
00:00:30.328 --> 00:00:33.499
"We will come back
to make sure it's accurate,
00:00:33.531 --> 00:00:36.735
but we'll do that while
you're already in the field."
00:00:36.769 --> 00:00:37.936
Within a matter of days
after that,
00:00:37.097 --> 00:00:41.073
the first diagnostic test kit
was approved,
00:00:41.106 --> 00:00:42.508
and it's a process
that typically can take
00:00:43.539 --> 00:00:44.476
upwards of a year.
00:00:44.051 --> 00:00:45.744
There were four cases
at the time,
00:00:45.778 --> 00:00:48.414
and it would be another few
weeks before there was a death,
00:00:48.446 --> 00:00:52.517
but they really felt the need
for diagnostic testing
00:00:52.055 --> 00:00:54.319
to be able to see
where the problem was
00:00:54.353 --> 00:00:57.997
and to deal with the threat.
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Movie Summary
An in-depth look at how the United States government handled the response to the COVID-19 outbreak during the early months of the pandemic.
