What other countries are discussing but we're not. Basically, it's a top down (lockdown) and bottom up (testing, contact tracing) approach that will flatten the curve. But after that massive testing is needed: testing for infection (plus contact tracing) *and* antibody testing...
to see who may have had it, but never shown symptoms though they recovered. It's the people who recovered after hospitalization/quarantine *and* those who have undergone antibody testing showing they were exposed, who will be the ones able to return to work. Those not yet...
exposed might still have to stay in quarantine until a vaccine is ready next year. In Germany people who survived, underwent quarantine after exposure and/or showed exposure in an antibody test, would receive certificates and this would allow them to return to work. In the USA...
a similar strategy is being proposed and discussed. This is to prevent a second or even third wave (the 1918 Flu Pandemic had three waves, the 2nd wave was most lethal). So we should not assume after lockdown is lifted, everyone can or should go back to work/school. But this is..
not being discussed even though government says it will greatly ramp up testing. Right now even though a lot more testing and processing can take place, overall, it's still a small number and being driven more by people actually showing up in hospitals seeking treatment.
So what is "massive testing"? Well during the epidemic to flatten the curve, it's not testing everyone, but taking representative samples to get an idea of overall where hotspots are, etc. We are getting to that point now. But there will have to be testing of *everyone* or...
nearly everyone, in terms of seeing who has antibodies. For a discussion of this concept, see Dr. Campbell's discussion last night (pay attention to Germany; near end he reviews official Philippines testing numbers):
