We can't turn people away from tests as capacity is ramping up. The @CDCgov and/or public health officials should be creating "waitlists" so people can be followed up immediately when tests are made available in their area or via mail.
2/ To date, in the United States 82,571 tests have been performed...22,410 tests were done between Tuesday and Wednesday. You can see the progress our country makes each day at @COVID19Tracking and covidtracking.com/us-daily/. We double our ability to test every few days.
3/ Unfortunately as more of our frontline health workers get exposed, testing capacity needs to be prioritized for them. They will need to be tested often as their exposure to #COVID2019 is frequent and the highest.
See this piece from the @WSJ this morning 👇🏾
See this piece from the @WSJ this morning 👇🏾
4/ "After initially offering widespread testing, Minnesota officials retrenched Tuesday, limiting testing to health-care workers, inpatients at hospitals and people in group living facilities"
wsj.com/articles/coron…
wsj.com/articles/coron…
5/ Which makes sense because those groups are at the most risk. But it does leave a void in testing for the masses and those who are showing early symptoms. That void will be filled, but it will take the weeks ahead to do that.
6/ In the meantime, we cannot just poorly "screen and forget" or deny a test because of capacity. We can't leave people stranded.
7/ During the HC.gov rescue, @paulsmith created a "waiting room" that was put up during periods of severe load and outages. It gave people confidence that they would be served. Not immediately, but eventually.
The same needs to happen here.
The same needs to happen here.
8/ We are still flying blind. Social distancing is only one of the tools to curtail the spread. It needs to be accompanied by an overabundance of testing and effective screening (ie. temperature checks not questionnaires).
nature.com/articles/d4158…
nature.com/articles/d4158…
9/ I'll be a broken record for a while. But we need to test, test, test and catch up to what other countries have shown is possible.
Our graphs in the US don't capture the true number of cases. They only capture our true testing ability.
Our graphs in the US don't capture the true number of cases. They only capture our true testing ability.
10/ The only responsible thing to do is to leave you with a thread from @trvrb that @alexismadrigal shared earlier in our Slack.
As as a scientist from @fredhutch studying viruses, evolution and immunity, he can speak to this best:
As as a scientist from @fredhutch studying viruses, evolution and immunity, he can speak to this best:
