Podcast

Description

By the end of last year, if you needed a coronavirus test, you could get one. But when vaccines arrived, focus shifted.

Many of the vaccinated felt like they didn’t need tests and demand took a nosedive. Testing sites were closed or converted into vaccination sites. And Abbott Laboratories, a major test manufacturer, wound up destroying millions.

However, with the surge of the new Omicron variant, which is less susceptible to vaccines, demand for testing is back — and it is outstripping supply.

Guest: Sheryl Gay Stolberg, a Washington correspondent, covering health policy for The New York Times.

Transcript