Read on Twitter
1. There's a perverse notion I keep hearing; it sure looks like an excuse to avoid doing things that people know they ought to be doing.
It's that imperfect disease prevention measures are worse than nothing, because they create a sense of overconfidence among the public.
It's that imperfect disease prevention measures are worse than nothing, because they create a sense of overconfidence among the public.
2. For example, the University of North Carolina does not plan to engage in entry testing, because, they claim, doing so might generate a false sense of security.
(h/t @arpitrage for this and the next two tweets. Source: https://chapelboro.com/news/unc/unc-not-requiring-covid-19-testing-upon-students-return-citing-false-sense-of-security)
(h/t @arpitrage for this and the next two tweets. Source: https://chapelboro.com/news/unc/unc-not-requiring-covid-19-testing-upon-students-return-citing-false-sense-of-security)
3. Remarkably, medical faculty seem to support this. Here's UNC Hospital Epidemiology director Dr. David Weber:
( https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article243371691.html)
( https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article243371691.html)
4. And Occupational Health director Dr. Erica Pettigrew.
(Incidentally, the false positive bit is nonsense. False positives are quite rare with RT-PCR, and when the treatment is merely isolation the cost of a false positive is minimal compared to many medical tests.)
(Incidentally, the false positive bit is nonsense. False positives are quite rare with RT-PCR, and when the treatment is merely isolation the cost of a false positive is minimal compared to many medical tests.)
5. In public health, many disease preventions are imperfect. Social distancing is. Masks are. Handwashing is.
We do them all, because each chips away at disease transmission.
Any of them could create a false sense of assurance, but we dropped them all think where we'd be.
We do them all, because each chips away at disease transmission.
Any of them could create a false sense of assurance, but we dropped them all think where we'd be.
6. Testing is another tool in the toolkit, and gives us further leverage against COVID.
If testing—or masks, or 6-foot rules, or handwashing, or anything else—helps but you're worried about it creating a false sense of assurance, the solution is not to avoid the intervention.
If testing—or masks, or 6-foot rules, or handwashing, or anything else—helps but you're worried about it creating a false sense of assurance, the solution is not to avoid the intervention.
7. The solution is to improve your public communication about risk. It's interesting that we readily accept that when it comes low-cost, logistically straightfoward interventions like masks and distancing and hygiene.
Not doing the same for testing sure looks like a copout.
Not doing the same for testing sure looks like a copout.
8. Of course, the CDC is giving cover to these copouts with their inexplicable and inexcusable decision not to recommend entry testing or on-going testing for colleges and universities this fall. More details in the thread below. https://twitter.com/CT_Bergstrom/status/1278602810158768131
