Testing 1,2...Testing!

I keep hearing the Trump haters try and blame Trump for not making tests more available. This is silly and irrational. Testing would have done nothing to stop the Chinese Covid 19 from spreading. Let's look at some facts:

https://www.healthline.com/health/coronavirus-incubation-period

Point #1, if the Chinese Covid 19 starts as mild symptoms then who is going to get tested for every little sneeze or cough? Not very many people will especially during allergy season. So the question is who gets tested?

Point #2, if it is possible for someone to be contagious without showing symptoms then what do we do? Should we immediately test 330 plus million people and quarantine those who test positive?

C'mon man! Get real!

 

So, the failure of testing could make Trump look bad, so Trump fans have to come up with reasons why testing is not important. We get it -- everything to protect their idol.

Now, in the real world, the availability of testing would have enabled us to test anyone in contact with patient one, who was the first known patient without any risk factors (traveling to China etc) for covid, if they developed cold symptoms. Same for the first cases in NY city. Wouldn't you think that could have slowed the spread?

Second, testing is critically important for people to know that they had the virus. If they had the cold/flu, but never were tested, they MAY actually have had covid, but never knew. Now, those people still self quarantine in fear of getting and spreading it, even though they might be immune. Those people could be contributing to the economy, instead of sitting at home in quarantine.

Personally, I had the flu three weeks ago. We did have students in my program and classes who came back from China after the Chinese new year. The symptoms of that flu kind of matched covid symptoms. If I had been tested, I would know. Now, I am sitting at home like everyone else, trying not to become infected.

 

I would point out that it was both the CDC and the FDA who's policy is clearly the reason that the US couldn't adopt a testing regime in a more expedient way. No one disputes this. And explain something to us. Would you be the person who demands that every person be "tested" by government? Even if they are a symptomatic? Even if they are otherwise healthy folks? why would you waste the resources? Do you suppose that government is more able to determine the need for having a test that supersedes a doctor? More, why were you, specifically against the travel bans in the past? And why would testing have been more effective than simply banning folks who are at risk from ever getting to our shores? The assertion that more widely available testing being an effective "cure" for the spread is actually quite childish. But, for folks trying to politicize the spread of the virus, and win an election, we can, quite clearly, see why folks, like you, continue to adopt this posture on the off chance that the folks you find "deplorable" might be swayed....

 

If this is, in fact true, and you haven't gone to a doctor, why? Since you believe to have at least two of the factors sufficient to have a test done, why haven't you? And similarly, if you have had this for as long as you say you have, don't you feel any remorse for the potential that you've spread it in a highly uncontrolled way through your own actions?

 

1) Show me a post where I opposed the travel restrictions (it wasn't a ban) to China? I'll wait.
2) Show me where I called testing a "cure"? Again, I'll wait.
3) Can't address the points I made of why testing is important, so you call people "childish" with a strawman argument, stating that people said things that they never said.

 

I stayed at home during the acute phase.

Second, I did go to the doctor when the cough didn't go away, I told them about my students coming back from China. The doctor didn't care. Why? They didn't even have enough face masks. Did the have any test kits? Most likely not. Or, if they did, they had instructions to ONLY use them on patients who had actually traveled back from China, i.e. the known risk group, before community transmission became accepted.

 

Umm... let's just say that if that happened to you, you have seriously poor health care. Testing for this isn't hard, or even expensive. And had you presented your "facts" as stated, any doctor would have gone to the effort of having you tested given your circumstances and symptoms. Can't say why you didn't but certainly you should have, and one hopes that you're actions aren't then directly consequential for the spread in your vicinity. Oh, and one hopes that you don't actually have it.

 

So testing is not the big deal the Trump haters are making it out to be? Thanks for proving my point.

The truth is that testing is not going to stop the virus.

 

Thanks for the well wishes. If I actually had it, I would have been through the woods about three weeks ago. Just have the lingering cough that I can't get rid of. That's why I am especially careful to not get another flu, or covid, on top of it.

Second, if you try to actually make me sound irresponsible for not self-quarantining, I first got the sore throat four weeks ago. That was BEFORE the first case of community transmission in the US was conformed. That was also BEFORE it was becoming more clear that asymptomatic transmission could be happening.

Our whole workplace system is not designed for people to take off when they have a cold. I teach a class of 200 students. I have missed only four classes due to cold/flu in my 18 year teaching career. Why? Because it is frowned upon in our society to take time off, even if it is sick time. People think you are making excuses or you are lazy. That's why most people, including myself, tend to suck it up and keep going to work, unless they absolutely can't.

 

More proof that the testing hysteria is bogus. Sure those who get sick need a test in order to know what to treat but otherwise it is nonsense to whine about tests not being readily available. This is a new virus and it is unreasonable to expect millions of testing kits to be available on demand. Just another way to try an bash Trump.

 

You still think this crisis is about the Dems trying to bash Trump, do you? Newsflash: Not everything is about Trump, even though he would like everything to be about him. Trump is actually quickly getting a bystander in the crisis, as governors take charge. They are the real leaders here. trump is just following, after weeks of denying the crisis.

Of course, it is true that there is more to the lack of testing capability than "Trump's fault". However, make no mistake, if loved ones pass away because they could not get a diagnosis because of lack of test kits, people will remember who was in charge. The buck stops at the top, no matter if it actually was Trump's fault or not.

 

You say this isn't about Trump then do nothing but rant about him. Quick get the TDS testing kits!

 

I'm all for more testing. The more tests they perform the lower the mortality rate drops. When people start see the truth of the data in comparison to the media's fearmongering they will reject this overblown response...

 

Testing would have slowed the spread of the virus and we would be in a very different situation right now. Also, if the Trump administration had shut down airports and the borders, and shut things down earlier, we might have been able to dramatically slow the spread. But instead Trump didn't care until too late, fired the epidemic response people a while back, and spent weeks telling his supporters that the virus wasn't a problem.

 

I can answer that question.....because he's a German citizen, Trump hater, and not a U.S. citizen.

I mean seriously, who the hell blames Trump for not having millions of testing kits available for a virus that didn't even exist before 'patient one'. That is some serious TDS. You can't make a testing kit for something that doesn't exist yet, jeez.

 

In what way? Testing doesn't "slow' anything. It must be conjoined with isolation or quarantine capability that then isolates the infection from others. Frankly, had folks not travelled to places that were at risk, knowing that they would be at risk seems to be able to overcome most of your assertion then, and had folks not travelled to those places and returned, there wouldn't have been a virus problem in this nation. Those are the facts, regardless of the angst you now wish to spread.

 

Yes. It’s disputed. It wasn’t CDC and FDA policy that's the cover story. The WHO only offered the tests for free to impoverished nations.

The problem with this President in a nutshell. He never takes responsibility for his decisions. His decision leads to a flustercuck, delays testing, therefore it must be someone else’s fault.

 

Obviously we do isolate and quarantine people who test positive. We have barely tested at all while other countries are testing as much as they can. Our response to this crisis as been too little too late. We have also been running trillion dollar deficits and have low interest rates, so we have little room to help the economy. This isn't a good situation and we aren't ready for it.

 

So, true. We have, as you suggested, tested sparingly. But, the better observation is that until it was necessary, it wasn't necessary. Just being realistic here. Testing a nation full of healthy folks is a complete waste of time, isn't it. But then, it doesn't sell test kits, or bill time for it, etc. The economy would be vastly better served if folks simply stopped overreacting to the hype and the angst.