Testing Won ’ t Get Us Where We Need to Go

Conclusions Testing is important to track the trajectory of an epidemic in a community to guide local or national efforts at mitigationThe tests we currently have for COVID have limited accuracy for the individual patientAntibody testing suggests that the fatality rate for COVID may be low in certain communities, but data from New York suggests there is the potential for significant death and morbidity in any major metropolitan areaContact tracing enabled by smart phone technology is likely unable to be effective because they do not overcome the inherent limitations of COVID testing, require widespread adoption, and may not even be accurate at determining high risk contacts. Mass testing alone is unlikely to completely explain the varying death rates seen by countryTesting is no panacea. This suggests a comprehensive strategy that incorporates testing, but doesn’t rely on it. Anish Koka is a Cardiologist in practice in Philadelphia. He is co-host of the podcast, The Accad & Koka Report, and can be followed on Twitter @anish_koka.  An edited version of this piece appeared in Medscape.
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: COVID-19 Health Policy Anish Koka COVID-19 testing Source Type: blogs