Mar 20, 2020
12:39:26am
12:39:26am
I don't think the emphasis on testing over isolation in the beginning days was
the right approach. It was political largely.
In a day when we have few tests, having 90%+ negative tests is alarming. The American people are notorious overutilizers of the ER. The testing emphasis encouraged panic and paranoia over reason. The message should have been about common sense approach to illness, which is and always has been to stay home and stay away from people. Messaging is a big deal
Of course testing is important but not as important as eradicating the disease. With all of the emphasis on testing, it is still highly unreliable and overtaxing our system in and of itself from a resource standpoint. I have several provider friends who work in ERs that very much trumpet this line of thinking. The way testing is treated, there is a sense that if you don't get a test that somehow you are hurting the country and its ability to gather data. The emphasis should be on getting healthy and avoiding giving someone else the disease.
Testing is of course important especially as we identify potential drugs to help combat. But does testing otherwise significantly impact treatment here? Maybe it does. The symptoms are there and the approach to those symptoms with a disease where little understanding exists does not seem to be any different just because we have a test result that could be unreliable. The reliability of these tests has been questioned since the very beginning.
It would matter if we had proven treatment methods specific to this disease that are distinct from similar diseases with similar symptoms. If public diagnosing was so important, why aren't people with the flu begged to come in to get a test just to prove they have it? Wouldn't the recommendation be to stay in bed and get better and if it got bad enough, come in to get treatment first and foremost.
I guess I value the individual patient more than the data that person could provide. There has to be both, I just put one over the other and believe the messaging should have been that way from the beginning. I am used to getting flamed for this opinion so flame away
In a day when we have few tests, having 90%+ negative tests is alarming. The American people are notorious overutilizers of the ER. The testing emphasis encouraged panic and paranoia over reason. The message should have been about common sense approach to illness, which is and always has been to stay home and stay away from people. Messaging is a big deal
Of course testing is important but not as important as eradicating the disease. With all of the emphasis on testing, it is still highly unreliable and overtaxing our system in and of itself from a resource standpoint. I have several provider friends who work in ERs that very much trumpet this line of thinking. The way testing is treated, there is a sense that if you don't get a test that somehow you are hurting the country and its ability to gather data. The emphasis should be on getting healthy and avoiding giving someone else the disease.
Testing is of course important especially as we identify potential drugs to help combat. But does testing otherwise significantly impact treatment here? Maybe it does. The symptoms are there and the approach to those symptoms with a disease where little understanding exists does not seem to be any different just because we have a test result that could be unreliable. The reliability of these tests has been questioned since the very beginning.
It would matter if we had proven treatment methods specific to this disease that are distinct from similar diseases with similar symptoms. If public diagnosing was so important, why aren't people with the flu begged to come in to get a test just to prove they have it? Wouldn't the recommendation be to stay in bed and get better and if it got bad enough, come in to get treatment first and foremost.
I guess I value the individual patient more than the data that person could provide. There has to be both, I just put one over the other and believe the messaging should have been that way from the beginning. I am used to getting flamed for this opinion so flame away
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