Service vs Product, Process vs Product

For years I had to look at business which were services or products. Selling a battery is a product business, being a plumber is a service business. I learned that ages ago. The difference is simple. I can shop for batteries from different vendors at different prices. I get this small cylindrical thing which I insert if some electronic device. On the other hand if my sink leaks I get a plumber, the plumber crawls under my sink, twists and turns a bunch of stuff, makes some strange noises, goes out to the truck, comes back with nothing, back under the sink, and then I get the bill. Kind of like a psychiatrist. But the sink now does not leak, can's say as much for a psychiatrist.

Now a process is not a product. The process of testing for the Wuhan Virus is a process. You cannot go out and buy a Wuhan Virus Test, you have to go somewhere, get sampled, it goes to a lab and hopefully comes back negative. Kind of like a plumber.

Now the point. Read this from the Harvard Gazette:

Massachusetts may ultimately need 1.4 million tests for COVID-19 and have to conduct tens of thousands a day, Harvard infectious disease experts said Friday, adding their voices to a nationwide chorus calling to increase dramatically the pace of testing across the country.

It kind of reads as if the test is some product. Like rolls of toilet tissue. It is a process provided as a service. Pick one of the thousands of labs in and around Boston and you will find hundreds which can easily do this test qua process. Throughput is an issue, expendables perhaps, people power, yes, but it is a process. No test kits, now packaging, no shelves to stock.

I just heard some Congressperson state that the VA had on 5 tests. This is why we have a problem, they all seem clueless. If you can do one test you can scale up to whatever, assuming you have some competent people around. Big assumption I know for DC, Albany, Trenton etc.

Just somebody do something. Please.