For those thinking "look proof that frequent tests dont work"... a wrong interpretation
This is the 1st transmitting event despite 100s (1000s?) of ppl crossing paths w president or through the White House. Testing has since March helped keep the WH generally free of virus.
It is far too easy when thinking about public health to see successes. The very nature of public health is that success is largely invisible. Reporting that no cases transmitted day after day is simply not a story. So we focus on where things go awry - its natural to do so.
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This is the same issue as vaccines and preventive healthcare, and public health in general. It does not get the funding it needs because its successes go unreported and undocumented... out of sight out of mind. But it is the daily undiscussed actions of public health that matter
I meant to say... to *not* see successes.
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Here we go again with this asinine cautious approach to testing for H5N1
CDC is NOT recommending that people with no symptoms - but who have had contact w infected animals - be tested at all… and certainly are not recommending a swab w any frequency.
Though we should have learned it in 2020, Here’s why this doesnt make sense:
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Firstly, tests are our eyes for viruses. It’s literally how we see where viruses are
If we wait until people are getting sick, we may have missed a major opportunity to find viruses jumping into humans before they learn to become so efficient in us that they cause disease
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So waiting until we actually have highly pathogenic strains harming humans - when we have a pretty discreet population at the moment to survey - is short sighted
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A particularly deadly consequence of measles is its erasure of previously acquired immune memory - setting kids and adults up for infections that they shouldn’t be at risk from!
We found for example that measles can eliminate as much as 80% of someone’s previously acquired immunity to other pathogens! science.org/doi/full/10.11…