NEW YORK (Reuters) – With families hoping to gather for the holidays, Reuters assembled more than 30 healthcare experts to discuss COVID-19 testing during an #AskReuters Twitter chat.
Below are edited highlights.
What kinds of COVID-19 tests are available now?
“Viral tests tell you if you have an active infection. Genetic (nucleic acid) tests are more accurate than antigen tests. These are used for making a diagnosis of current #COVID-19 infection.”
– Raed Dweik, MD, MBA, chair of Cleveland Clinic’s Respiratory Institute
Can people safely rely on test results to socialize?
“You should not rely on test results alone to safely socialize in person. A test can only tell you if you are positive at a given moment in time, and can also fail to detect cases if you are infected but not yet shedding substantial virus.”
– Dr. Angela Rasmussen, virologist affiliated with Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Security
“Now is the time for delayed gratification. My family pushed back Thanksgiving to the spring and look forward to a safer event at that time.”
– Dr. Joshua Schiffer, associate professor at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
If someone thinks they have been exposed to COVID-19, should they get tested?
“If you think you’ve been exposed to COVID-19, first protect others by limiting your contact with anyone else as best as you can. Get tested even if you don’t have symptoms. And quarantine until you get the results.”
– Heather Pierce, JD, MPH, senior director and regulatory counsel at Association of American Medical Colleges
“Yes! If you think you’ve been exposed, get tested. Whether or not you have symptoms or are at increased risk, you should get tested if your local testing capacity allows it.”
– Dr. Syra Madad, senior director, Special Pathogens at New York City Health & Hospitals
What are the current successes and failures of testing?
“Despite many bumps in the road, a massive success is the number of tests currently available. It’s remarkable that so many have achieved FDA authorization. We continue, however, to struggle to meet testing demand, which requires more reagents and more people.”
– Infectious Diseases Society of America
“To me, the biggest failure is that we are still unable to do what South Korea and Taiwan were able to do in the spring. The failure of testing continues to plague us. Long lines, long turnaround time, lack of reagents.”
– Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
How can testing be democratized so that everyone has access?
“We need to hardwire equity into our COVID-19 response in terms of access, prioritization and coverage. Essential workers are not prioritized in COVID-19 testing, yet they have the highest exposure.”
– Roopa Dhatt, executive director at Women in Global Health
“Globally, the lack of widespread availability of testing is partly what is resulting in an underestimate of the true burden of this pandemic. A lot more people have had and have died of this disease than have been diagnosed.”
– Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, infectious-diseases physician and associate professor at the Boston University School of Medicine
Can mass testing be used for people to return to “normal”?
“No. Testing does not replace basic prevention measures such as social distancing and wearing masks. Testing negative only means you have no detectable virus at the time of the test.”
– Joe Eisenberg, chair and professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health
“Regardless of testing, we must not abandon at this point the pillars of public health: use of masks, physical distance and frequent hand washing.”
– Dr. Diego Hijano, instructor in the Department of Infectious Diseases at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
What gives you hope?
“I have hope that soon we will have more tools to help us fight the pandemic in the vaccines. However people need to understand they will not magically solve the pandemic but are tools to add to the public health interventions we already have and we need to use them all.”
– Dr. Krutika Kuppalli, infectious disease researcher
“For the first time, I have hope. Interim vaccine data show more than 90% efficacy, as much as measles. By next winter, we will be getting back to normal. By 2022, we will start to socialize. We can’t eradicate COVID-19 but can eliminate it, perhaps by 2023.”
– Lawrence Gostin, director at O’Neill Institute for National & Global Health Law at Georgetown Law
For a recap of the entire Twitter chat, see https://twitter.com/i/events/1329135938367320067
(Compiled by Beatrix Lockwood; Editing by Tom Brown)
