https://www.texastribune.org/2020/04/29/texas-coronavirus-tests/
A&M System Chancellor John Sharp said the "federal red tape" is preventing Texas from making full use of the lab, which he said has years of experience testing animals with the same method used to test for the coronavirus.
"Red tape is one thing, but red tape in the middle of a pandemic is pretty ridiculous," Sharp said in an interview. "This ain't the time to follow the rules, this is the time to follow common sense and open up facilities that they know are some of the best in the country."
A&M says it has a lab in College Station that could run as many as 1,800 tests per day; one in Amarillo that could do 1,000; and labs in Center and Gonzalez that could run 300 tests each. The labs have high capacities because they often have to test entire herds or flocks. The labs perform around 900,000 tests annually, 64,000 of which are done with the same "polymerase chain reaction" used to test humans for the coronavirus, system officials said.
For more than a month, A&M System officials have gone back and forth with the federal agency over fully scaling up its veterinary labs for human coronavirus testing. While the supplies to run the human tests are different than those used for animals, the equipment and the testing process are the same, said Bruce Akey, director of the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory.
A&M System Chancellor John Sharp said the "federal red tape" is preventing Texas from making full use of the lab, which he said has years of experience testing animals with the same method used to test for the coronavirus.
"Red tape is one thing, but red tape in the middle of a pandemic is pretty ridiculous," Sharp said in an interview. "This ain't the time to follow the rules, this is the time to follow common sense and open up facilities that they know are some of the best in the country."
A&M says it has a lab in College Station that could run as many as 1,800 tests per day; one in Amarillo that could do 1,000; and labs in Center and Gonzalez that could run 300 tests each. The labs have high capacities because they often have to test entire herds or flocks. The labs perform around 900,000 tests annually, 64,000 of which are done with the same "polymerase chain reaction" used to test humans for the coronavirus, system officials said.
For more than a month, A&M System officials have gone back and forth with the federal agency over fully scaling up its veterinary labs for human coronavirus testing. While the supplies to run the human tests are different than those used for animals, the equipment and the testing process are the same, said Bruce Akey, director of the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory.