Hacker News Reader

Comment by exhilaration | Hacker News Reader

Because we don't have enough tests. We could reopen the country if we could test enough people, but we're stuck. Even in New York and New Jersey, tests are still limited to symptomatic people because there isn't enough testing capacity.

View on HN

It's a problem of limited resource allocation. The _point_ is that we have limited tests, so given limited supply why are we wasting the tests on those we think are sick. The limited supply could still be directed towards asymptomatic carriers. Wouldn't be testing everyone we want, but it's still more valuable than the allocation of tests right now.

It's far too widespread right now to successfully control via contact tracing and isolation, even if we had infinite testing capacity. The optimal use of testing right now is whatever produces the largest number of positive results, so that large case counts stay in the headlines, helping to ensure political support for stay at home orders. And that's more or less how the tests are being allocated.

But what's the point of testing people that are already sick?

We don't treat Covid patients any differently than any other patients that develop pneumonia

We often put covid and suspected covid in separate areas of the hospital from others, with a different staff.

kjust to be clear, this is just what friends have told me, this is the communal we, I do not work in a hospital.

The point is to catch as many infected people as possible with limited available resources. When someone is found to have the virus, then contact tracing is used to identify even more infected people and to shut down local outbreaks asap. Only a minority of people with mild symptoms actually have the virus.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com