** There is likely NO single identifiable group of ppl who pose a greater risk of spreading virus than those leaving isolation at 5 days w/out a Neg test
Rate of being infectious at d5 may be >40%
*Test-to-Exit*
It’s smart Public Health
To be clear - this is five days from symptom onset when MANY ppl are arriving back to work infectious!
Reluctance to incorporate a negative test into the return protocol is mind boggling.
The test should be a rapid Ag test because OCR stays positive far too long after someone is no longer infectious. A rapid Antigen test turns negative when infectiousness stops.
PCR*
We Do have enough treats for such a nation-wide test-to-exit program!
@phil_luttazi The global exit strategy from this pandemic is/always has been the building up of immunity
This virus will never disappear and herd immunity to eliminate is not a thing for a virus like this
So we are stuck with effectively one option (with multiple paths to get there)
1/
@phil_luttazi We must build up a sufficiently robust and diverse immune response so that the importance that this virus has in our lives falls lower and lower.
As adults we are on the same steep learning curve that babies are on in early life. But doing this as adults is risky business
2/
@phil_luttazi However, we have no choice. The virus is with us and just like the other viruses we contend with as babies, it’s not going away.
So it would be foolish to assume that vaccination is our only approach to building immunity when we have a virus that will cycle for our lifetimes
3/
My family is spread across the US - In past few weeks, every single house has had multiple people w COVID
It's a bumpy road and we're taking a particularly rough path with a lot of casualties
But we are building up the layers of immunity to grow out of this virus' grip on us.
Regarding building "Layers of Immunity"
Think about immunity like studying for a test
Read a textbook. Each time, you reinforce formed memory & you see something new too! Some small but useful detail
Immune memory can be considered simply - very much like regular memory
Even though the vaccines aren't stopping transmission (they were never meant to. Herd immunity shouldn't have been seen as an option) the vaccines ARE working to do EXACTLY what they were meant to do - stop disease
@awyllie13 Numerous reports show saliva comes up earlier and w Omicron there have been MANY anecdotes that throat swabs (which interact with saliva!) are turning positive BEFORE nasal swabs
And this pre-print suggests people are infectious when saliva turns positive
2/
Importantly, people are becoming symptomatic really fast too! As this study suggests
So we can use this to our GREAT advantage...
If beginning to feel Symptomatic - ASSUME positive, ASSUME infectious