Posted on 04/15/2020 9:18:27 AM PDT by rintintin
Universal testing for COVID-19 would be the best way to get the U.S. economy back up and running, St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard said Tuesday.
Bullard, speaking on a conference call organized by the St. Louis Regional Chamber, said closing nonessential businesses “is appropriate for now but it’s a crazy inefficient policy. You don’t really want to go back to this quarantine policy in the future if you don’t have to.”
He said that after coronavirus infection numbers start to drop, but without a vaccine available, the nation’s goal should be to get healthy workers back on the job while keeping the public safe.
“Widespread testing of everybody in the economy would put an end to this crisis,” Bullard added. “We can’t get there right now but this is costing us $25 billion a day.”
His comments come as President Donald Trump and several governors have formed task forces to talk about restarting the economy. So far, though, states don’t even have enough tests for people with known exposure to the coronavirus, let alone enough to test all workers.
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., told the Chamber last week that antibody tests, which determine if individuals have recovered from the new coronavirus strain, should be available for some by the end of the month and more widely by the end of the summer.
Bullard compared the task of producing hundreds of millions of test kits with the process of mobilizing the economy for war. “At these kinds of numbers you really want to ramp that up at all costs,” he said. “All businesses need these tests, households need these tests, schools need these tests. Everyone needs them because they need to know where the virus is to manage this going forward.”
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
And yet ANOTHER expert weighs in...
Preach
And yet ANOTHER expert weighs in...”
With common sense. He’s merely promoting the policy that Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea have followed to isolate people with the virus and let everybody else KEEP GOING TO WORK. It’s a common sense policy, and why Trump hasn’t pushed for it, I do not know.
hope not but we’ll see
Then you are destined to be a grocery store, sports franchise or restaurant owner in Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
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Two grocery stores next to each other.
One has simple quick testing required for entry.
The other does not.
You are nuts if you don’t realize how popular the one offering testing would be.
How about opening the NFL? What’s your solution. I say let the owners buy enough machines to make game day testing possible. At least give me the option if I have the money to buy them. Only way you see sports again.
Maybe it’ll be test several times a day, now if only had a few billion tests available to get started with the testings ...
From not
“The government also took high-tech measures to trace people who might be infected, or who came in contact with someone who was.
In a single day, the JAMA study stated, Taiwanese agencies merged patients’ past 14-day travel history with their public health insurance information, combining data from health identification cards and from the immigration agency.”
And they do not have universal testing.
And the virus is still out there waiting for them. So unless this is there forever regime they are at risk.
another ‘hoop’ to jump thru to allow the progressives/marxists to make sure the economy is burned to the ground in order to prevent the reelection of Trump
Immune antibody testing perhaps...not testing for antigen shedding.
force all the Bloods and the Crips
Please. You’re making the perfect the enemy of the good. People who work in the economy should be tested so they can go to work without infecting each other. The alternative is what we’re doing now - keep everyone in their homes because we don’t know who is infected.
Again, this is what they’re doing in Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore.
If Trump (who I support) endorsed this common sense policy, and put big money behind getting the tests developed and distributed, there would be full support on Freerepublic, because it’s common sense. The push back is only coming because Freepers feel defensive that Trump isn’t talking about testing.
The truth is, Trump is the victim of the CDC and FDA, which kept testing from being rolled out on a broad basis. For some reason, he doesn’t want to attack them. It’s the same thing with him feeling he has to have Fauci and Birx at his side, and hasn’t openly criticized them. It’s frustrating that he has been hampered by these swampsters.
I am living in California where there is a drive-up testing facility a few miles from my house. There are six such facilities in California, piloting a larger program. I am marginally in six different risk groups, and when I applied to be tested, honest answers to the questions made me not qualified to be tested. How in the hell are we going to have universal testing if you can’t even get tested in an experimental testing zone, voluntarily?
“Well then, and I do mean this with all due respect, if you are such a fan, why don’t you go and move there?”
Or maybe we could adopt a common sense policy here?
Sure, if you actually had a business, you could make such requirements.
How in the hell are we going to have universal testing if you can’t even get tested in an experimental testing zone, voluntarily?”
It would take a big commitment by government at all levels, starting with Trump Administration. I blame Birx, the CDC and FDA for being way to bureaucratic and slow. Unfortunately, Trump for some reason will not call them out, even though they are the definition of swampsters.
Common sense like creating a program that will require more testing materials than can possibly be produced even if we had five years to make them? Common sense like testing all of the very diverse population groups in this country, some of whom will be very, very resistant to testing? Common sense like writing more draconian laws to further expand government and give them an even bigger intrusion into your life?
It’s not common sense because for our country and population your ideas are not the least bit practical at all.
“But you don’t need that ID to vote.”
That was my first thought.
My next thought was what does the genius Fed leader tells us what happens to people who refuse to be tested?
My third thought was how do such people get high paying jobs, is the game rigged?
People keep referring to testing without knowing the first thing scientifically about the testing. They’re two very distinct tests that give very different results. One tests for the coronavirus antigen, the other tests for the antibodies that form after infection and seroconversion of having a active case of covid19. The test to let people out for unlimited work access is the antibodies test that proves you have had covid19 and with a corresponding negative antigen test you are no longer experiencing an active covid19 infection. BOTH tests are needed to prove immunity and also lack of infectious disease transmission ability. Testing positive for the antigen means full quarantine as you have an active case of covid19. Testing negative for both means no active infection and also no immunity. Testing positive for the antigen and negative for the antibodies means you have a recent covid19 infection that your body jas not begun fighting yet. Testing positive for both means you have an active covid19 case and are infectious but also building immunity should you survive, positive for both still means quarantine as you will infect others.
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