months ago, a month ago. >> reporter: but many public-health experts have been sounding the alarm for months. >> everybody saw it coming. we knewby needed more tests. i think the administration dropped the ball on this. >> we are still way behind on testing. >> frankly, i think a big problem is, right from the start, we didn't have a strategic plan about how testing was going to fit in with our response. >> reporter: and in october, anticipating a winter surge, a group of experts including dr. michael mena made an urgent plea to white house officials. >> tried everything i could to advise our government on the need for these tools. >> reporter: in a presentation obtained by cnn, the experts predicted the u.s. would need about 732 million rapid at home tests per month by march 2022. even after factoring in expected production increases, the experts warned the u.s. would fall short by about a quarter of a billion tests. white house officials say they didn't disagree with the goals but by october, it was mission