Time was of the essence and they wasted 3-5 weeks getting the test working.
The German test that WHO adopted was simpler (2 genetic sites checked) and worked.
If you don't know who made the mistakes, why and how, then you don't learn how to prevent the same or similar mistakes in the future. A lot of the mistakes were purely political interference in CDC/ public health matters. But some of it, especially the failed test and contamination seems to have been CDC intransigence.