1/ How should you use rapid antigen tests to keep yourself safe over the holidays?
If you making short day trips to visit family/friends outside the home, take a rapid antigen test before you get in the car.
- If you're positive, stay home.
- If you're negative, have fun.
2/ If you're making longer trips & staying outside the home, plan to take a rapid antigen test every other day.
Why every other day?
It's the minimum to prevent transmission with Delta's short incubation period.
- If you're positive, stay home.
- If you're negative, have fun.
3/ The cost of rapid COVID tests in the U.S. is "TOO DAMN HIGH."
Other countries, like the UK, deliver free rapid tests to anyone upon request.
Let's start with who would CLEARLY benefit from an additional dose of vaccine NOW:
- Elderly
- Nursing home & long-term care facility residents
- Immunocompromised persons
- People who got a single J&J vaccination
2/ @MSNBC's @SRuhle is right: what do we mean by "indicated"?
This is what's driving much of the disagreement among scientists on whether additional doses of vaccine are needed.
3/ Are we trying to prevent severe disease, hospitalization, & death?
Are we ALSO trying to prevent ALL infections & transmission?
We have yet to agree on this, but we need to have a frank conversation about what we're trying to achieve.
2/ Almost 760K Americans have died from COVID to date.
If the risks of COVID had been clearly communicated early in the pandemic, there would certainly have been less resistance to mitigation measures like masking.
3/ People make decisions weighing risk and benefit.
But when they are misinformed about the risks, they can't make good decisions.