Doctor Sanjay Gupta on CNN: Less value in COVID-19 testing once it's endemic

[brooklynite]

There's no vaccine so no need to identify individual patients to be treated. On a community level, you probably assume that everyone does have it already, so no value in individual checks.

[Iwasthere]

1. BS!!!!

We want to know if we are heading into Italy territory

[RockRaven]

2. There was a critical window in Jan-Feb when it was most useful and impactful,

and Trump fucked it up and imposed that fuck-up on 300 million people because he's an ignorant, short-sighted psychopath.

[Takket]

3. That's idiotic

You need to know where it is to help contain it and to determine how best to treat it.

[Recursion]

8. It's all over the country. We're weeks past the hot spot stage.

Testing doesn't really help at this point.

[defacto7]

4. Bullshit. How short sighted.

[Recursion]

9. No, he's right. The window where it would have helped is over

We're talking hundreds of thousands of cases already. Testing doesn't help you at that point.

[Hoyt]

5. If it's almost everywhere, he's probably right. See no reason to doubt him if that is what he said.

But, we should still prioritize getting testing out to front lines.

It's not like they are going to hospitalize everyone who tests positive.

[Crunchy Frog]

6. It's still important to know what the prevalence is in a given area.

Or do we plan to go through this unfettered by any information at all?

[Recursion]

7. I've been saying this for a week now

Last edited Fri Mar 13, 2020, 06:45 PM - Edit history (1)

Testing may give interesting data about the outbreak for later but it's too late to be of any real use now.

[eleny]

10. "assume that everyone does have it already"

wtf.

[Recursion]

11. He's right. That's why that two-curve chart is everywhere now

We're past the point where geographic containment is even possible so most Americans will get it, like the seasonal flu before the vaccine was developed. That's why schools are closing regardless of whether anybody has it yet, to slow the spread down to what our health system can handle.

[eleny]

12. We've been keeping to our house for over a week - age and conditions

We were already shopping to stock up on basics three weeks ago just in case.

We've been living accordingly now for weeks. But his truth telling shocked me.

Thanks for your reply. It really has helped my resolve to keep at it and be vigilant about our new precautions. At first we've been perceived as a little over the top. Even DUers indulged in snark. Nuts to that.