As @DrTedros has been arguing all week, containment of Covid-19 does seem possible. But it's going to take a lot of testing bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
Some diseases, such as influenza, basically can't be contained, because too much of the transmission occurs before symptoms appear pnas.org/content/101/16…
Covid-19 seems to have some pre-symptom transmission, but not a lot, and China and South Korea are showing that with aggressive testing, isolation of those who test positive, and tracing of their contacts you can halt the spread of the disease bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Clearly, the U.S. hasn't been doing great on the testing front, as @yayitsrob and @alexismadrigal documented today theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Epidemiologist @BillHanage argues that the testing delays mean that that "the battle to keep covid-19 from becoming established in the United States is probably over" washingtonpost.com/outlook/corona…
But the battle to contain it isn't over. "This epidemic can be pushed back," @DrTedros said yesterday, "but only with a collective, coordinated and comprehensive approach that engages the entire machinery of government." who.int/dg/speeches/de…
And, well, the main obstacle to that happening in the U.S. at the moment appears to be this dude bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
