“Bad testing and non compliance is what’s hurting Italy.
They US is more like Italy than the other two.”
****************************
Absolutely right.
Testing should have started from “day one”—everything else as data can’t be compared. CDC should have been on top of this.
From day one? All 360 million of us? How many testing kits you need for that? How many people do you need administering those tests? Running tests? Reading and analyzing results? Developing public health policies based on the results? And to do all that dealing with novel pathogen with unknown properties? Get real.
Testing isn't as useful as it might appear unless it is being used to detect and isolate pre-symptomatic people who are suspected to have been infected.
Surveillance testing doesn't tell you a lot of useful information if a disease is highly contagious. A healthy person tested as non-infected could get infected an hour later when they touch their nose after touching the doorknob on the way out of the clinic, or when the person next to them coughs on them.
The fatality rate in the US will not be like the fatality rate in Italy.
The author isn't comparing the U.S. to Italy. And his primary point isn't about the CDC screw-up of the testing.
Read the full article.