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To Suppress Covid-19, Test Those With No Symptoms (NYT)
NYT
April 26, 2020, 11:00 a.m. ET
By Shan Soe-Lin and Robert Hecht
Ms. Soe-Lin is managing director of Pharos Global Health Advisors and a lecturer at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale University. Mr. Hecht is a professor of clinical epidemiology at Yale University and the president of Pharos Global Health Advisors.
Almost the only people who are being tested for the coronavirus are those who have symptoms of Covid-19, an approach endorsed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which provides guidance for states.
That has probably revealed just a fraction of the people infected, putting thousands of American in danger, because most of those who carry the virus do not know it.
What’s needed is widespread testing of people with no known symptoms.
A small set of blood tests for antibodies indicated that as many as 2.7 million New Yorkers may have been infected without realizing it, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Thursday. That’s in line with other findings. A recent study showed that up to one-third of residents in Chelsea, a hot spot in Massachusetts, may have been infected, and only half of them could recall having a single symptom over the past four weeks. Another small study, of pregnant women in New York City, found that 15 percent tested positive for the virus, and 80 percent of them had no symptoms. Of the 840 cases on the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, 60 percent were asymptomatic.
So Covid-19 seems much more prevalent than our meager amount of testing has indicated, and millions of infected people may be innocently spreading the disease.
That has probably revealed just a fraction of the people infected, putting thousands of American in danger, because most of those who carry the virus do not know it.
What’s needed is widespread testing of people with no known symptoms.
A small set of blood tests for antibodies indicated that as many as 2.7 million New Yorkers may have been infected without realizing it, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Thursday. That’s in line with other findings. A recent study showed that up to one-third of residents in Chelsea, a hot spot in Massachusetts, may have been infected, and only half of them could recall having a single symptom over the past four weeks. Another small study, of pregnant women in New York City, found that 15 percent tested positive for the virus, and 80 percent of them had no symptoms. Of the 840 cases on the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, 60 percent were asymptomatic.
So Covid-19 seems much more prevalent than our meager amount of testing has indicated, and millions of infected people may be innocently spreading the disease.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/26/opinion/coronavirus-test-asymptomatic.html
This is a great idea. Last week on SiriusXM's Doctor Radio, one of the very frustrated guest doctors said, to paraphrase, the lack of testing left them in a position where "we're only testing people we already know have COVID-19"
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