Americans are currently experiencing an epidemic caused by a novel coronavirus known as COVID-19. At the time of publishing, there are over half a million cases of COVID-19 in the United States and more than 20,000 Americans have died. While the numbers continue rising by tens of thousands every day and more states are issuing shelter-in-place advisories or mandatory quarantines, Americans are confused amid misinformation from prominent figures and are at particular disadvantage due to the culture of avoiding going to see a healthcare provider because of high costs.
The first U.S. case of COVID-19 was discovered in late January. By the end of February, there were 24 cases and one American death. In the first few weeks of the outbreak testing was very limited, sometimes as few as 300 for an entire state. It then took time for health officials to realize that the tests they received were flawed, lacking critical components and delivering faulty results.
In late February, a Seattle team researching the flu found they could test for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes COVID-19, but were running