I still see BC still getting grief for not #covid19 mass testing general popn like South Korea. What SK is doing is amazing. All can aspire to emulate. 15,000 tests a day! But BC is testing general popn at almost EXACT same rate, and with same criteria as SK. Lemme explain. 2/
The argument I hear is that broad testing "like SK" would achieve SK-style curve flattening. But SK isn't doing broader testing. Yes, as of yesterday it's tested 286K (5,570/million popn) vs BC's 6,326 total as of Monday. As of yesterday, say, 7,200. (abt 1420/million). BUT 3/
SK's testing was overwhelmingly target at a specific group. Not the gen popn. It tested all 212,000 members of the Shincheonji whose worshippers were at centre of a huge outbreak comprising 60% of all SK cases. It's not random. 4/
Exclude the cult, and SK has tested 74,716 of gen pop, at rate of 1,451/million. Almost exactly the same rate as BC's testing of the gen popn. 5/
That's not super surprising. S Korea has pretty much the same testing benchmarks. Do you have fever? Have you travelled? Where? Any contact with patient? Who have you contacted? And then a doctor decides if you're a suspected case needing a test. Yeah, pretty much same as BC. 6/
Yes, S Korea has clever things like drive-through testing for general popn. But these haven't increased the SK gen popn test rate anything more than fractionally beyond BC's. And keep in mind that BC's test rate (like SK's) is world class. Few places test more than BC. 7/
But more=better right? Yes. For sure. Crank 'er up. Can BC match SK's 15,000 test/day capacity (which may not be maintained now cult tests r done)? Dunno. But SK's testing is a overwhelmingly done by private facilities. 90%. It's their system. We don't have it. We're not SK 8/
It's a fair goal, to increase tests. SK flattened its curve due to mega testing. But this was because it had a humongous outbreak, with 212,000 high-risk identified targets for testing. We can't flatten our curve same way. We don't have names of suspect folk with no symptoms. 9/
Vaccine/treatments, bring em on. But in short term, tech isn't our path to flatter curve. The answer is in the same places that flattened curves with far lower test rates than BC: Taiwan, HK, Japan. Stay home. Stay clean. Slow this ourselves, asap, until science does its thing.🤞
I should add...all those places also wear a LOT of face masks when they aren't socially distancing. They are ubiquitous in HK.
