But some of the most vocal testing proponents are less worried about the declines in screening. From a public health viewpoint, testing is effective if it helps to quickly find the infected, trace their contacts and isolate them to stop the spread. In most parts of the U.S., that never happened.
Contact tracing seemed to have become silly. At one point in July, Florida estimated 16% of their population, based on serology testing and a simple model, had been exposed to Covid-19. But only about 1/10th of those had been confirmed with a test. Which means 90% were never contact traced. Did contact tracing just 10% of cases make much difference?
Over the holiday season, many Americans still had to wait days to receive test results, rendering them largely useless. That’s led to testing fatigue and dwindling interest, said Dr. Michael Mina of Harvard University.
I read earlier today that due to the Arctic weather outbreak the prior week, many test results were delayed 7-14 days. At which point the results have little value.
Source: Plunging demand for COVID-19 tests may leave US exposed
