Harvard Report Suggests U.S. Must Increase Testing by 13,200 Percent to Reopen Economy
“The great value of this approach is that it will prevent cycles of opening up and shutting down.”
The goalposts keep getting moved, and this number seems a bit excessive, don’t you think?
The College Fix reports:
Harvard report says U.S. needs to increase testing by 13,200% in order to reopen economy
A new research paper out of Harvard argues that the United States will need to increase the number of COVID-19 tests it administers many thousands of times over before it will be safe to re-open the American economy.
The paper, written by scholars from multiple institutions and published through Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, argues that U.S. medical authorities need to increase the average number of daily coronavirus tests in the country to a staggering 20,000,000 “by late July” in order for public health officials to feel satisfied that economic activity can resume.
That’s an increase of around 13,200 percent of present average daily testing in the United States, which has hovered around 150,000 tests per day. The researchers argue that the increased testing capacity is “vital for disease monitoring, rapid public health response, and disease control.”
The paper claims that such testing capabilities will negate the need for a cyclical opening and closing of the economy:
The great value of this approach is that it will prevent cycles of opening up and shutting down. It allows us to steadily reopen the parts of the economy that have been shut down, protect our frontline workers, and contain the virus to levels where it can be effectively managed and treated until we can find a vaccine.
We can have bottom-up innovation and participation and top-down direction and protection at the same time; that is what our federal system is designed for.
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Here’s an idea. Lockdown Harvard. Cut them off from the Internet.
Flattening the curve helps the health-care systems cope with the epidemic, but the AREA under the curve is what is most important in the long run. The area corresponds to the number of people who get sick and possibly die.
Flattening the curve means that we will just get it later than we would otherwise, unless we can postpone getting it long enough until a vaccine is available. That’s why the government and the vaccine makers need to adopt faster methods of making and testing vaccines.
What we need is data now. Assuming some miraculous vaccine effectiveness is illogical. CDC has claimed influenza vaccines over the last 5 years as ranging from `19 to 48%. Acquiring the proverbial herd immunity is useless if national boundaries are not protected. Learn from the return of diseases that the United States previously eliminated only to return from 3rd world and ineffective immigration control.
In circumspect it has been Fauci’s 40 plus years researching and financing development of a vaccine for “Aids” that could be the very cause of this pandemic. That Fauci has enabled funding in excess of $80 billion for the type of research likely the source of this pandemic is inarguable. See AAAS May 2011 report for a little background.
Unbiased antibody studies are indicating that the Covid-19 disease is much less deadly than what the media generally presents. Right now we need to know if the presumed increased deadliness in New York and New Jersey is based upon environment and central planning inherent fatal flaws or if there is an actual biologic basis. If those at-risk can be protected as has generally been the case in Florida, we may have a working, partial solution already.
Flattening of the curve is also very helpful if it allows you to get an effective therapy recognized. Then getting the virus is not a big deal. Getting a truly effective vaccine might never occur.
Harvard is being a “drama queen” with the 13200% increase in testing from 150,000 now. That means 20 million tests per day. I have said something similar for a long time, which is tantamount to saying that anyone feeling poorly can go to any medical office or lab testing place and get a test. Rutgers U came out with a saliva test that can handle tens of thousands a day. That is the kind of thing you need, not high labor content swab tests.
Nuke Harvard.
13,200 times.
“It’s the only way to be sure.”