Now do it for schools. For our kids, their dedicated teachers,and all the the administrators, school nurses, bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria staff, and every single person who provides educational support for our kids. Testing isn’t even close to being enough. (thread) https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1288917042545012737

The problem with relying on testing as prevention, without distancing and masks, is that positive tests happen AFTER an infection occurs. There’s a “window period” before new infections can be detected by tests. People don’t test positive the moment infection occurs.

It can sometimes take 4-6 days for the virus to replicate in the body to a level that can be detected by a test. W/out distancing & masking, a person who tests negative today, can get infected tonight, & test negative tomorrow, Sat, Sun, Mon & Tues before testing positive on Wed.

At some point they become contagious whether or not they feel sick. So everyone that has had close contact with that person before they knew they were infected has likely been exposed to COVID19.

Just like with HIV, testing for COVID19 is important, but it’s not a *prevention* method. (HIV testing is limited by a window period too.) Testing without distancing and masking does not work. Cases will continue to rise and people will continue to die.

That’s why, even if we could, testing everyone entering a school building every day wouldn’t be the end of our worries about schools opening at all.