How many people have tested positive for #covid19?
It’s time for you to stop asking this.
We are in a new phase of this fight. Only one thing matters now: treatment of the gravely ill. That means we need a whole new set of measures. The old ones are holding us back. 1/
It’s time for you to stop asking this.
We are in a new phase of this fight. Only one thing matters now: treatment of the gravely ill. That means we need a whole new set of measures. The old ones are holding us back. 1/
There was a time when we desperately needed to ramp up broad testing. When confirming cases allowed us to track the progress of this deadly epidemic. But we failed in the containment phase, and that time has passed. 2/
We didn’t test enough when we needed to. And now we are over testing and it’s causing us harm--bringing people out of their home to spread the virus, burning through precious protective gear, and diverting staff from acute care. 3/
And remember: for someone with mild covid19 symptoms (high fever, dry cough), a test result gives zero useful information. If you have the symptoms, assume you have the virus, stay home, rest, hydrate, take meds for the fever, and be ready to call a doc if you get worse. 4/
We don’t need testing to know that the virus has spread far and wide in places like NYC. The actual number of people who are infected is far more than those who have been tested. And some groups test more than others, further distorting the picture. 5/
In places like NYC, we're now facing the total over-running of our medical system. This is all that matters now. And that’s what we need to measure.
It's critical that we know in real time how many people are:
* Hospitalized
* In intensive care
* On ventilators
* Fatalities
6/
It's critical that we know in real time how many people are:
* Hospitalized
* In intensive care
* On ventilators
* Fatalities
6/
Unfortunately our public health system has not quite caught up to all of this. The important data (other than fatalities) is still very hard to come by. But brilliant people in the NYC Health Dept (and elsewhere I assume) are working day and night to fix that. Stay tuned. 7/
To recap: The war is now upon us. Hospitals are the battlefield. That’s the only thing we need to be looking at. Mass testing is over. 8/8
(Testing is still important in some circumstances, mainly for people hospitalized for whom a diagnosis can direct treatment. And of course on the back side of this epidemic when we again have very few cases broad testing will be important. But that's very very far off.)
