* He’s right, of course…
As the United States continues to struggle to ramp up basic testing for COVID-19, experts at the World Health Organization on Monday emphasized that countries should prioritize such testing—and that social-distancing measures are not enough.
“We have a simple message for all countries: test, test, test,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (aka Dr. Tedros) said in a press briefing March 16. […]
“The most effective way to prevent infections and save lives is breaking the chains of transmission,” he went on. “And to do that, you must test and isolate. You cannot fight a fire blindfolded. And we cannot stop this pandemic if we don’t know who is infected.””
But we don’t have nearly enough tests. Not even close. And that’s having serious consequences.
* Sun-Times…
Laura Koch was enjoying a show at the Chicago Theater earlier this month when a cough that started earlier in the day got worse and she developed a fever.
She left at intermission, and by the following day she developed more symptoms consistent with the coronavirus, including shortness of breath and vomiting.
Though she’s tried repeatedly to get tested for COVID-19, her efforts have proved fruitless.
For nearly 10 days, city and state officials, emergency room doctors and even her personal physician have rebuffed her requests. Despite being diagnosed with pneumonia — which can be caused by the novel coronavirus — Koch didn’t meet the state’s threshold for testing because she hadn’t come into contact with a person that tested positive or traveled to a hotbed for the disease, like China or Italy.
“I’m really frustrated with our whole system,” said Koch, a sales trainer for a food service company who remains self-quarantined in her Uptown apartment. “We hear that all these tests are available, but they’re obviously not.” […]
Dr. Robert Murphy, director of the Global Institute for Public Health at Northwestern University, said anyone that’s even exhibiting “minor symptoms” should already be getting tested — but mistakes at the federal level in not ramping up testing sooner have limited capacity, leading to the severe restrictions. Now, to make more tests available, it’s not as easy as simply “flipping a switch,” he said.
This is just maddening.
- fs - Tuesday, Mar 17, 20 @ 9:37 am:
We have no idea how long this virus has actually been circulating, other than just guessing. The fact that there are cases in every State should tell us it wasn’t just the last two weeks. To have a condition that people, especially someone with clear symptoms, can’t get tested unless they know they were in contact with someone who had it or had travelled is just insanely stupid. We can’t stop it if we don’t know where it is (and isn’t)
- 47th Ward - Tuesday, Mar 17, 20 @ 9:46 am:
Mr. Blutarsky, zero point zero.
Voting is generally safe as long as people aren’t waiting in line too close together. A little common sense goes a long way, as does hand sanitizer.
Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life son. We don’t cancel elections, especially since voting has been on-going for weeks.
Nothing is over until we say it is.
- Moby - Tuesday, Mar 17, 20 @ 9:49 am:
Unless they start testing EVERYONE, even people with no symptoms, then the testing is senseless. People are infectious before symptoms start.
- njt - Tuesday, Mar 17, 20 @ 9:58 am:
===Dr. Robert Murphy, director of the Global Institute for Public Health at Northwestern University, said anyone that’s even exhibiting “minor symptoms” should already be getting tested — but mistakes at the federal level in not ramping up testing sooner have limited capacity, leading to the severe restrictions. Now, to make more tests available, it’s not as easy as simply “flipping a switch,” he said.===
My mother is a triage nurse in New Hampshire where two patients are quarantined. The CDC won’t even test the nurses at the hospitals treating these patients. We are far away from testing regular citizens.
- illinifan - Tuesday, Mar 17, 20 @ 10:00 am:
Testing is not senseless. It will not change treatment but it can identify major pockets of the illness, establish quarantines and limit the spread of the illness. It has been spreading as people did not know what they had was this virus especially if they were hit with mild symptoms. It is new. The more data the better.
- Last Bull Moose - Tuesday, Mar 17, 20 @ 10:03 am:
We don’t have to test everyone to get a good estimate of how many people have Covid-19. We can identify hotspots and clear zones with proper sampling and statistics.
- Tawk - Tuesday, Mar 17, 20 @ 10:10 am:
Looks like the FDA is finally lifting restrictions on state testing. https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2020/03/16/fda-coronavirus-labcorp-hologic-covid19/
- JS Mill - Tuesday, Mar 17, 20 @ 10:21 am:
I cannot understand why we didn’t ramp up production of testing kits when it became obvious this would spread out of China (which was easy on)?
S. Korea is testing everyone, how can they be more advanced in this concept and application that the US?
Mass testing allows us to isolate pockets and apply resources.
- Independent - Tuesday, Mar 17, 20 @ 10:24 am:
And Trump finally appears to grasp the gravity of the situation. Outside of an occasional boneheaded barb his complacency and dismissiveness have disappeared. This means FOX will fall in line and might even start providing factual information to its viewers, who will hopefully alter their habits. Until now Tucker Carlson was the only FOX personality who got it.
- Candy Dogood - Tuesday, Mar 17, 20 @ 10:27 am:
===This is just maddening.===
Welcome aboard, Rich. This was me last week.
Now I just don’t know what I can do because I haven’t been able to convince the people that can do things to treat this as something more serious than an interruption to their productivity that will make their monthly reports look bad.
At some points yesterday I just hung my head and cried for a bit. I guess that’s acceptance. Right?
We’re all going to lose people we care about.
===I cannot understand why we didn’t ramp up production of testing kits when it became obvious this would spread out of China===
We spent a couple of cycles democratically electing a group of people to operate our government which intentionally and quite effectively hamstrung our ability to do any of these things.
- Last Bull Moose - Tuesday, Mar 17, 20 @ 10:31 am:
Our testing is woefully inadequate but no country is testing everyone South Korea has tested about 250,000 out of 50 million. by that standard we should test about 1.5 million.
- Anon - Tuesday, Mar 17, 20 @ 10:32 am:
Gov Cuomo said the other day New York had enough test kits and was only waiting for more labs to get up to speed to process the tests. An Admiral at the President’s press conference yesterday said there were about 1 million tests ready, with another million kits ready this week. So, are these test kits going elsewhere?
- TinyDancer(FKASue) - Tuesday, Mar 17, 20 @ 10:38 am:
Tests? We don’t need no stinkin’ tests.
This is scary:
https://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/legal-analyst-discusses-his-bout-with-coronavirus-80702021977
- Pot calling kettle - Tuesday, Mar 17, 20 @ 11:18 am:
IDPH reports having 1143 PUI (persons under investigation) of which 105 (9%) were positive and 1038 (91%) were negative.
The percentage of positives and negatives has been very consistent in the daily reports for the last week.
Aside from the fact that we are not testing enough people, what does this mean?
Does it indicate that the virus is not widespread? Less than 10% of the people who pass the screens for “likely to be infected” is pretty low.
or
Is the screening protocol bad? It’s possible that the screening protocol is skewing the results to the low side. This seems likely given that community spread seems to be occurring, and that where widespread testing has been done, many (maybe 50%) folks with the virus are asymptomatic.
When we put the odd(?) results of the tests we are doing together with anecdotal reports of folks who are ill but not tested (and then later tested and found to have the novel corona virus), it seems to me that the screening protocol needs to be reexamined.
- Hank - Tuesday, Mar 17, 20 @ 11:29 am:
Yet some how, an entire pro basketball team is tested and results given quickly, Celebrities and athletes in the US are getting tested and sometimes even their siblings which all run to social media to post status. Waiting for the Kardashians to be tested and announce their latest fashion accessory to wear while quarantined
- illinifan - Tuesday, Mar 17, 20 @ 12:43 pm:
This makes sense. Dallas Tx hospital is doing drive through testing and meeting with the ER doc from their cars. It helps save costs on PPE which is in short supply. Based on symptoms person is first test for flu and strep (those results are immediate). Once those are ruled out then tested for COVID19. ER doc can then dispense advise and when to report back to ER (if there are breathing issues).
- OK Boomer - Tuesday, Mar 17, 20 @ 1:18 pm:
Those who argue that CV-19 has been around far longer than commonly thought fail to recognize that a percentage of those afflicted suffer so significantly that they require a ventilator to breathe. If people have been ill with this virus since say early January wouldn’t more folks have required ventilators over the last three months? Am I missing something?
- illinifan - Tuesday, Mar 17, 20 @ 1:28 pm:
This season we were using a lot of ventilators and it was attributed to the flu. Hospitals were saying they were already at capacity before this started and ERs were packed. Most of the public is not aware of this capacity unless you know someone who is in the health care industry.
- Pundent - Tuesday, Mar 17, 20 @ 1:52 pm:
=testing is senseless=
No. What is senseless is anyone who believes that they know better than the WHO. Testing is the answer to this problem. Listen to the medical professionals. Suggesting that you know better as akin to yelling fire in a crowded theater.
- JT11505 - Tuesday, Mar 17, 20 @ 2:44 pm:
In January, German scientists developed the first test for COVID-19 and the World Health Organization offered the test to countries around the world. Sixty countries accepted - the US wasn’t one of them.