Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday got roundly mocked for boasting that the United States finally has coronavirus test kits ready for use -- but so far there are only 2,500.
As reported by PBS News' Yamiche Alcindor, Pence said that he was "pleased to report we have 2500 kits available that we will distribute" in the coming days. Medical experts say that each kit will allow for 500 tests, which means that labs should be able to conduct 1.25 million tests with them overall.
However, given how quickly the virus is spreading in a nation of 330 million people, that number of kits was deemed woefully inadequate, especially at a time when other nations have had testing procedures in place for the last several weeks while America has struggled to get its test kits out the door.
Check out some reaction to Pence's boast below.
Hey @VP 2,500? Are you kidding me? https://t.co/ILxpvK8wrH— John Weaver (@John Weaver) 1583347277.0
Need 10x at least, 20x by the end of the week. https://t.co/ovuklzx0M4— Michael Brendan Dougherty (@Michael Brendan Dougherty) 1583347487.0
2,500? There are 372.2 million Americans living in over 3,000 counties. Even if there are 500 tests per kit, that w… https://t.co/hshg7exrLD— SusannaDW (@SusannaDW) 1583347601.0
I mean that should be fine. Everything is magical and good. 2,500 kits is a lot of kits. We can all share strongly… https://t.co/IFq2gYYEll— Lafayette (@Lafayette) 1583347398.0
2,500 kits? South Korea is testing 15,000 people per day. https://t.co/qAlkLrTxo9— Spin Doctor (@Spin Doctor) 1583347189.0
25... HUNDRED? That's how you pat yourself on the back, Pence? FFS. https://t.co/zVdTtthEJH— Laffy (@Laffy) 1583347768.0
@rtw1992 327 million people. 40-60% projected contagion rate. Only 2,500 tests ready, and even those have still not been distributed.— HereticalStoic (@HereticalStoic) 1583348909.0
This is supposed to inspire confidence? South Korea is testing 10,000 per day. The VP is touting 2,500 tests for th… https://t.co/4TzaKtuTAk— Jody (@Jody) 1583347752.0
They have **2,500** testing kits available!! To put that in perspective, 3.8 MILLION people travel thru Orlando In… https://t.co/V485S3de4k— Kim (@Kim) 1583348470.0
