Thread by @ThePlumLineGS

We are shockingly far from having anything close to the testing regime we need to reopen safely.

I had a very sobering conversation about what's needed with @DrTomFrieden, a top expert.

The consequences of falling short are terrifying. Our interview:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…

@DrTomFrieden Some highlights from our interview:

@DrTomFrieden tells me we need to *triple* our daily testing just to get to the point where we're testing high priority cases.

To really be safe, we'd be testing all admitted to hospitals. But that's far away indeed:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…

@DrTomFrieden This is highly troubling.

@DrTomFrieden points out we don't have a clear sense of what percentage of people with Covid-like symptoms admitted to hospitals are even getting tested.

"There are more people who have symptoms every day than there are tests."

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…

@DrTomFrieden We're shockingly far behind when it comes to contact tracing, too.

Look at these comparisons to other countries:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…

@DrTomFrieden The consequences of failing to seriously ramp up testing before reopening are frightening.

"much higher risk that the virus will explode again, resulting in avoidable infections of health care workers, overload of our health system, and increased deaths"

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…