My Authors
Read all threads
1. Some hard facts to explain why
Testing, testing, testing is not enough
In our @RockefellerFdn action plan we called for 35 million tests/week, scaling up over the next 6 months rockefellerfoundation.org/national-covid… Others have called for 35 million/day
2. We need a massive number of tests now, daily, but it has taken the US several weeks just to get to <5 million total. Even with the recruitment of academic & industry labs (as we advocated), it'll take time & the big N of tests, while desirable, are ambitious, to say the least.
3. Besides practical limitations of doing tests for >330 million people, once is not enough. A negative test could turn positive the next day. There is a major issue still w/ false negatives. Testing every week (or more frequent) would be ideal, but that's even more impractical.
4. Relying on the serology tests sets up other problems. There is a significant false positive rate and lack of validation of any at scale, especially in populations w/ low infection rates.
Moreover, we don't know if IgG antibody protects: (1)against spread and (2) for how long?
5. So now test, test, test has some holes. We desperately need to do them but can't do them at the scale or frequency we need for the US population and geography; the accuracy can't be fully relied upon. The virus test is a one-off assessment. How can we be smarter about this?
6. We need massive, passive, cheap, continuous surveillance for risk.
We've seen promise w/ a smart thermometer (@Kinsa) but that requires taking one's temperature a couple of times a day.
There are >100 million Americans w/a smartwatch or wristband that gets resting heart rate.
7. A rise in resting heart rate antedates fever; we've published on its ability to predict flu:
thelancet.com/journals/landi…
Germany (@rki_de) used that to design a smartwatch app for heart rate now used for >300,000 citizens for #COVID19 surveillance
8. We have no national #COVID19 plan. If we did, we'd have a digital surveillance strategy, as reviewed @RockefellerFdn report. In the meantime, you are welcome to join >12,000 Americans enrolled in @detect_study to donate your heart rate data. Spread the word, not the virus. 🙏
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh.

Enjoying this thread?

Keep Current with Eric Topol

Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3.00/month or $30.00/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!