No Magic Bullet ..

.. not yet:

• No cure .. also, not yet.
• No therapeutics (like any virus, we can only treat the symptoms while the patient fights it off).
• No vaccine. While we have progress, 12-18 months is the best reality-based estimate today,
• No idea who can transmit the disease.
• No idea if we have it ourselves and can infect those we love.

Testing, testing and testing. Progress there:

• The fifteen-minute (rapid FDA approval) results test came out late last week.
• The five-minute result test from Abbott could help identify the wellness of critical medical workers prior to working their shifts.
• There was a two-minute test touted, but this story has been withdrawn. I don’t want to sound snarky, but it’s about accuracy, ability to administer the test and realize the results .. we don’t need the ‘fast food’ version of testing protocols. Let’s get it right.
• Most promising for health workers (direct from Doctor Birx) .. the ‘suspected resolved’ (those who think / know they had it and got over it) is the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Referred to as ELISA, is the test that looks for antibodies that defeat the virus in your blood. The short version (“I’m not a Doctor” .. do your research: talk to yours):
  

• While not a cure, it can identify people with the antibodies .. those who will likely be able to resist the virus. These folks could potentially return to a ‘normal’ level of activity.
• The trick: sorting if they’re immune themselves, are they still transmitting the virus?
• I’m certain there is more to discuss.

How soon will these tests be available to be deployed? In what volumes? In what areas? Who will get them first? Lots of references in the news about processing backlogs creating long delays.

At present, there are still not enough tests, and as it is possible for all of us to be transmitting this without symptoms .. we don’t know from whom to stay away.

In short: “Behave like you have it ..“

Stay close. Stay home.