Posted on 04/03/2020 8:09:46 AM PDT by rintintin
Stay inside, don't meet with friends, don't go to work — these are the messages coming from public health officials at every level of government. But increasingly, experts say they believe those stark warnings must be augmented with another message:
If you think you might be sick, even a little sick, get tested for coronavirus.
"Everyone staying home is just a very blunt measure. That's what you say when you've got really nothing else," says Emily Gurley, an associate scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "Being able to test folks is really the linchpin in getting beyond what we're doing now."
Testing "is absolutely essential to control the epidemic," agrees Robert Gallo, director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and a co-discoverer of HIV. Gallo says that testing was a major factor in bringing the AIDS epidemic under control, and it will be needed here as well: "You make it as cheap as you can and you make it as simple as you can," he says.
Currently, the federal government's official position is that the vast majority of Americans shouldn't even bother trying to get tested. "If you don't have symptoms, you don't need a test," Vice President Pence told reporters during a White House briefing on Sunday.
Pence's statement came on the same day that Sen. Rand Paul tested positive for the coronavirus, despite having no symptoms. And a growing body of research suggests that Paul is hardly alone — asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic people are likely a key reason coronavirus continues to spread relentlessly across the globe.
Even when people become sick, the federal government only recommends testing in limited circumstances. According to official CDC guidance, testing should be prioritized to those admitted to hospitals ...
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
In contrast , “America the free” has most of its residents in house arrest, regardless of whether they have the virus - Were not even bothering to test whether people have the virus - unless they’re sick enough to go to the hospital, or they’re a sports star or politician
Trump should ask Fauci and Birx to step aside, and start consulting with public health scientists from Hong Kong , Singapore and Taiwan, where they believe in healing halting the virus without killing the economy
More ‘experts’
This is a manufactured "crisis".
To "end" it is rather academic:
"Get sick, get immune."
I think that every time I see a headline today which reads “experts say” I am going to down a shot.
Ooops. I’m in Pennsylvania. Liquor stores closed. Can’t do that.
It’s rationing based on limited supply? As supply goes up so will the testing?
They just want all our DNA for “the chip”
What a crock
I feel played
South Korea was being praised for their handling of the virus when they were only testing 5% of people, so I still think the testing mantra is a red herring.
"South Korea has tested more than 270,000 people, which amounts to more than 5200 tests per million inhabitants—more than any other country except tiny Bahrain"
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/coronavirus-cases-have-dropped-sharply-south-korea-whats-secret-its-success
Pay no attention to the content of media reports.
Begin your analysis with the certainty that media reports are false.
From there the thought process should be what are they really trying to do and how.
Widespread testing is how Singapore and Taiwan are keeping their businesses open and their people working
You prefer the forced confinement and mass unemployment that the US has chosen?
Herr Wolf has your best interests in mind. A benevolent dictator is he!
I’ll do it as your stand in. I’m already in the bag and it’s 8:15am here.
Trump has done well....showing leadership...the DBM and the rats are just waiting to pounce.....but he has cut them off at the curve every time......
Testing is not a cure,
Explain your reasoning. If everybody is tested, we can allow everybody who tests negative to go back to work. That’s how they’re doing it in Singapore
You prefer mass confinement and shutting down the economy because we dont know who does and doesn’t have virus?
Do we have 330 million test kits available today and do we have the ability to process those 330 million tests in a very short period of time? Let’s say within a week.
We need a new FDA.
What magic does testing have??
The people are being gaslighted into thinking that testing ends the virus.
Paranoid much ?
5,200 tests per million is .52% not 5%. 1,000,000 divided by 100 is 10,000.
What magic does testing have??
Ask Singapore and Taiwan, where they use testing to stop the virus while keeping the economy open. If you test negative, you can live your life as usual and go to work. Only people who test positive have to stay at home
You prefer the US policy of closing the economy and forcing everybody to stay in their houses?
Universal testing is not practical for all sorts of reasons.
However, if it WERE possible the effect would be to drive the death rate of this bug down to very small levels and cut the legs from under the argument for national shutdowns.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.