WASHINGTON — The coronavirus pandemic remained a distant threat to many Americans on Jan. 24 when Douglas C. Bryant, the president and chief executive officer of Quidel Corporation, got a call from an official at the Food and Drug Administration.
If the government helped, the official asked, would Quidel make tests to detect coronavirus infections?
Mr. Bryant decided to go for it, even though some experts at the time were predicting the United States would quickly tame any outbreak.
