Thread by @JStormogipson

A family member of mine has a wife and two small boys at home. He works at a retail store. 2 days ago he developed a fever of 103.4 and a dry cough with tight chest. He called his doctor and they did not test him for Coronavirus and told him he did not need to self quarantine! 1/

Today his fever is gone but his breathing is worse and more chest pain and tightness with increased shortness of breath. He is unable to climb a flight of stairs with out stopping to catch his breath. He again called is doctor who did not recommended testing for Coronavirus...2/

He's waiting for a call back in a couple hours. WE NEED TO BE TESTING THESE PEOPLE!
#TESTVIRUSNOW

So he just got a call back. The doctor said he doesn't need a test because he's "confident that he HAS COVID-19"!!
But without a test, the doctor will commit his entire family to 2 weeks of quarantine without really knowing. 3/

Additionally, there will be no notification of possible contacts, like his son's daycare and no testing there either.
His case won't be counted in the official statics.
Where is the testing that you promised Donald Trump?
#TESTVIRUSNOW 4/

This tells me that our statistics about "confirmed" cases are close to worthless and give people a false sense of security. 5/
#TESTVIRUSNOW

Here's today's follow-up from his wife:
"His chest pain today is about the same. The doctor just said to wait until he’s symptom free for 72 hours and then he’s free to leave the house, and told me I can do whatever since I don’t have symptoms. 1/

They do want to do an x-ray on him, and just told him to show up to the clinic and they’ll get him a mask after he checks in 😂😂😂 (I’m laughing because everyone is in trouble if this is how they’re treating all situations) 2/2

So I spoke with a physician member of the hospital's infection control command center about this advice:
It follows CDC guidelines. They don't have enough tests yet. Until yesterday, they could only perform 80 swab tests per day. Yesterday that capability increased to 500/day. 1/

So the claim by Trump and Pence that anyone who needs a test can get one is not true.
They would like to test more people but are prioritizing hospitalized patients and health care workers. This makes sense.
They hope to implement drive through testing but he couldn't say when.2/

I then spoke with him about the advice that family members of presumed COVID-19 patients did not need to stay home or change their activities until they developed symptoms. 3/

I referred to the recent German study showing that by the time patients develop even the mildest symptoms they are already contagious.
"Asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic transmission are a major factor in transmission for Covid-19" amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/03/14…

He was familiar with the study and agreed that family members of COVID-19 patients SHOULD exercise caution, not go to school, daycare or be in situations where they cannot maintain social distancing. Although these are not current CDC guidelines (incredibly!?)!5/

He agreed to discuss this with the rest of the infectious disease command colleagues at his institution to consider modifying their advice protocol. 6/

The goal would be to err on the side of being more conservative so as to reduce the risk of virus transmission by asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic family members of infected patients.
I hope they do, and that the CDC follows suit to decrease the spread of this disease.

"...more than half a dozen studies have shown that people without symptoms are causing substantial amounts of infection." amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/03/14…

"it's become clear that transmission by people who are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic is responsible for more transmission than previously thought."