The route to reopen?
Testing at scale is needed, but that's not enough.
I wrote an oped on how we can use our digital infrastructure to guide us on the unchartered exit-ramp and avoid a 2nd wave rebound
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/10/how-digital-data-collection-can-help-track-covid-19-cases-real-time/ 1/x

Most are advocating some version of massive testing as the guide. But doing that for a country of 330 million people is very challenging, w/ uncertainties of the tests, the need to serially assess, and to plan for a long surveillance (e.g. 18 months) period
Full text here 2/x

Let's 1st review the tests.
For the virus, there's a problem with false negatives
For the antibody, it's a very challenging assay
And we don't know if having IgG levels confers protection from spreading, or how long it might protect 3/x
https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1247888361219473409

We don't know the true asymptomatic carrier rate but it's estimated (Fauci) to be 25-50% (a new @NIH study is going after that in 10,000 people) https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-begins-study-quantify-undetected-cases-coronavirus-infection A single virus test or body temperature as a screen to return to work may not be reliable 4/x

We can use digital markers to identify a cluster where there is a potential #COVID19 emerging outbreak. This could be done via active means of body temp or passive thru smartwatches. Over 100 million Americans have a smartwatch or fitness band that captures resting heart rate 5/x