Testing, Testing, Testing

It’s not just ‘the’ test .. the one that confirms whether you have the virus (‘tested positive’) or not (‘tested negative’).

I started this thought in No Magic Bullet .. six days ago (sheesh .. has it only been six daze?) .. let’s work through it.

It gets pretty granular:

• Diagnostic Test: Referred to, above. It is a Point in Time test, ideally, performed often (before or after encounters, activities, going outside and so on). It gives you a positive or negative result only at that point in time. Technically, you’d have to re-test any time you changed places (work to home to the grocery store to anywhere), encountered someone new (or someone you encounter regularly encounters someone new), etc., etc. The most common use today is to test healthcare workers prior to their shifts. It’s not really practical for the rest of us. While reliable, the risk of the time between exposure to incubation (and therefore, detection) is still unknown.
• Antibody test: This is for the “The Resolved“. Those who have contracted the virus and survived it. Far fewer of these folks out there, but knowing who has recovered opens possibilities. These folks can provide a serum containing their antibodies and / or potentially be immune and return to work. Questions still exist: if they’re truly immune, or if they can shed virus if they’re further exposed, and so on.
• Broader tests .. tests everywhere, even for those who are not showing symptoms.

The bits above give us optics into our actual status, giving us a larger denominator when calculating mortality, providing more granular geographical and demographic data, and more.

Testing (testing and testing) is the key to considering how we can get from the ‘new normal’ of WFH (now) to the ‘newer normal’, where therapy encourages recovery, creating more Resolved, and the Resolved enable businesses to safely consider non-WFH operations.

For now, we continue physical distancing. We’ve done well with this (so says the news), but we must continue.

Stay connected. Stay safe. Stay home.