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Is there too much CoVid testing?

Is there too much CoVid testing?

  • Yes, the more we find the worse we look

    Votes: 2 6.9%

  • Yes, it only fuels the Dems to keep us locked up

    Votes: 3 10.3%

  • No, we need know who positive for contact tracing

    Votes: 22 75.9%

  • No, we will still need the same number of bodybags anyway

    Votes: 2 6.9%
  • Total voters
    29
jaypatriot said:
How would we know if there is too much or too little testing?
What is the metric?
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900,000 a day according the Harvard’s Global Health Institute if, post relaxation of social distancing measures, we wish to be be able to catch a flare up in infections before it became a serious problem.

I’d view that as a floor since the other thing we need to be concerned is making people feel safe going out to their local mall or restaurant. Maybe at that level of testing enough people are confident enough that reopened businesses have a reasonable chance of not going out of business. Maybe not and we find that the public doesn’t give a **** what experts say and aren’t happy until 2,000,000 people are tested.
 
jaypatriot said:
I wonder how you would know that. Do we have testing stats for each state and large municipality?
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Has everybody been tested multiple times? If not we're not testing enough.
 
antiquity said:
Actually testing is kind of a waste of time...say you get tested and proven negative and 10 minutes later you come in contact with someone who has the virus...
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I would think that if you were going into a workplace where there are lots of workers close together, you would like to know if those workers had been recently tested and were shown to be negative.
And if you were sending your children back to school, testing might give you a little more confidence that your child and the teachers are not infected.
Yes, I understand you can have false negatives and false positives.
And lie detector tests don't always give the correct results either.
 
Gaius46 said:
900,000 a day according the Harvard’s Global Health Institute if, post relaxation of social distancing measures, we wish to be be able to catch a flare up in infections before it became a serious problem.

I’d view that as a floor since the other thing we need to be concerned is making people feel safe going out to their local mall or restaurant. Maybe at that level of testing enough people are confident enough that reopened businesses have a reasonable chance of not going out of business. Maybe not and we find that the public doesn’t give a **** what experts say and aren’t happy until 2,000,000 people are tested.
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Different people will have their own number.
On CBS Nightly News Nora O'Donnell was using the word "staggering" when describing 30, 40, 50, and 60,000 deaths.
She stopped using that word now that we are over 90,000 dead. What does "staggering" really mean?
How would we know if 900,000 a day or 2 million tests a day are enough?
Are those numbers "staggering"? Or just numbers?
 
jaypatriot said:
Different people will have their own number.
On CBS Nightly News Nora O'Donnell was using the word "staggering" when describing 30, 40, 50, and 60,000 deaths.
She stopped using that word now that we are over 90,000 dead. What does "staggering" really mean?
How would we know if 900,000 a day or 2 million tests a day are enough?
Are those numbers "staggering"? Or just numbers?
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Staggering means shocking etc. Whether that’s what she really meant......

This is not what I do for a living so I can only go by what sources I think are reliable say. We’d know if 900,000 or any number for that matter is enough if life goes relatively back to normal and there are no major flare ups.
 
If places are set up to test a thousand people and only five hundred show up what can you do? This is happening pretty much everywhere. I'm hoping it is because people aren't feeling sick. This is hopefully really good news.
 
switt said:
Is there too much CoVid testing?
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Not enough by far. There was a good article in the Washington Post about what South Korea did along with a couple of other countries and how we could do it here to open the economy. Mass testing combined with contact tracing especially for hot spots, quarantine for those positive with stipends until they are no longer positive. THey estimated it at 74 billion but would enable the economy to be opened safely. A lot less than 3 trillion. Seemed like a good plan.
 
More testing will lead to more confirmed cases... this will increase stress on people, increasing depression, abuse and suicide. This is not beneficial to these people and consequently we should be testing less as a result.
 
Mycroft said:
No. The more the better...and contact tracing or body bags have nothing to do with it. Everyone who wants a test...and especially those who have symptoms...should be able to get a test.

btw, keep in mind that, like most other diagnostic tests, if a person doesn't have symptoms they may justifiably be required to pay for the test themselves.

So, switt, where do you stand on your own question?
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I'm a little wary of "everyone who wants a test should be able to get one". I'm concerned that will just bog down finding and taking care of those who are asymptomatic or enduring minor symptoms. Dealing with those people, e.g. getting them quarantined and monitored, will help us move forward.
 
swing_voter said:
We went to get tested. The kids and I are positive. The wife is negative, but they say there are a lot of false positives and negatives, like 5%. I can't see all of us having it and not her.

I was a little sick, with fever, chills and for like two hours I could barely breath, but was okay after that, so I assumed I didn't have it. The kids showed no symptoms at all.
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She may be immune. There is always that person that will not get sick. That may be why the kids had no symptoms. her genes may have protected them. That is the idea behind genetic diversity. Some will die and others will live. The problem is we rarely know who cannot be affected by something. Those that are naturally immune are very useful in finding a cure.
 
jaypatriot said:
I wonder how you would know that. Do we have testing stats for each state and large municipality?
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My state has testing stats down to the zip code. We don't have nearly enough testing and need exponentially more to determine if we're simply not testing enough, or if community spread is rampant.
 
switt said:
Is there too much CoVid testing?
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There cannot be too much testing except once this virus has become eradicated. Accurate information is always useful over speculation from inaccurate information. That is the reason we have a pandemic on our hands in the first place. By the time we realized the danger it had spread across the world and it was too late to stop it. We should have started preparing back when SARS first came out 20 years ago. You just cannot get 20 years of research and preparation done in a few months when we needed that information in the first few days of this disease. A week after the first case and we had already lost the ballgame. The only one with information was China and we saw how that helped the world. A world wide pandemic was the answer.
 
switt said:
Is there too much CoVid testing?
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If your POTUS ratings and popularity depend upon presenting low numbers, yes...the ultimate would be NO TESTING = NO CASES.

For the rest of the human race, you might get a different answer, but if you're Trump, the rest of the human race doesn't really matter.
 
Gaius46 said:
We were in Alaska in middle January and in places with a large numbers of Chinese tourists. Both wife and I felt like crap for about a week afterwards. Assumed it had more to do with being in sub zero temps for a week and crashing after a great vacation but now I wonder.
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We left China just 2 days before the first confirmed case there (we usually go every year).
 
SouthernDemocrat said:
We left China just 2 days before the first confirmed case there (we usually go every year).
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We were planning to go to Japan but decided to put it off until our anniversary in October. I’d always wanted to visit Alaska so that’s what opted to do.

I was amazed at the number of Asian tourists we ran across in Fairbanks. Most were Chinese but we also came across Japanese person or two.
 
Gaius46 said:
We were planning to go to Japan but decided to put it off until our anniversary in October. I’d always wanted to visit Alaska so that’s what opted to do.

I was amazed at the number of Asian tourists we ran across in Fairbanks. Most were Chinese but we also came across Japanese person or two.
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Our daughters are from China, so we try to take them back to visit every year. China is actually a very inexpensive trip if you go in the Fall and Winter. For example, our flights to Shanghai were $542 round trip each. I think we will have to skip this year though unless by some miracle we get a vaccine in the next few months.
 
Mycroft said:
I'm not talking about "annual seasonal deaths". I'm talking about "death rate".

These are two different animals.
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Can you explain how death rate is important when there is insufficient data to form the equation?
 
mrjurrs said:
Can you explain how death rate is important when there is insufficient data to form the equation?
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Death rate is always important for a variety of reasons, such as deciding a government's reaction.

If there is insufficient data, then it is important that we do whatever we can to get sufficient...and accurate...data.
 
Mycroft said:
In a way, I can see the importance of "contact tracing". However, I have concerns about encroachment against personal privacy.

On a more basic level, I'm still not sure if this particular virus warrants contact tracing.

With more and more testing, we are finding that more people have actually had the virus than we thought, while death numbers are accurate (even with issues on which deaths are consider the result of the virus). This means that the death rate in relation to infection keeps going down. Depending on who's numbers are used, the COVID-19 death rate is no worse or just slightly worse than the flu. If it become harder to argue against this fact, then it'll be harder to argue for contact tracing, since we don't use that for the flu.

So yeah...the more testing the better...and for me, the jury is still out about contact tracing.
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According to my math, the US has, and has maintained, about a 5% mortality rate. 126,000/2,470,000=5.1%. Am curious as to why our mortality rate hasn't dropped like a rock since we are now testing and getting the positives from young and healthy. Anyone?
 
switt said:
According to my math, the US has, and has maintained, about a 5% mortality rate. 126,000/2,470,000=5.1%. Am curious as to why our mortality rate hasn't dropped like a rock since we are now testing and getting the positives from young and healthy. Anyone?
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31 million Americans have been tested. Less than 10% of the population.

To find those hotspots and do contact tracing we need that many test every week if not more.

But trump believes if we stop testing then the virus will just go away. People will keep dying but no one will know why.

He was wrong about going back to normal and he is wrong about quitting testing.

This coming shutdown is going to be much worse than the last one.
 
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