2. Friday afternoon, my 2-year-old woke up from his nap with a 102-degree fever. We had a telehealth meeting with his pediatrician, who agreed that, even though the caseload in CT is low right now, he should get a COVID test.
3. The first available appointment wasn't until Monday morning. But when we called our pediatrician back, she was able to get us in on Saturday morning. And just eight hours after the test, we got the results back: negative.
4. Being able to get tested that quickly and get the results back that quickly was huge, not just (or even mostly) for my little boy as for everyone else he'd come in contact with.
5. His brother had just started pre-school. If we'd had to wait until Monday for the test, we would've had to keep him out of school until we got the results. His grandmother, whom we'd seen a couple days earlier, teaches. She couldn't have gone to school until results were in.
6. His babysitter didn't know if she'd been infected. We, his parents, didn't really feel like we could go anywhere in public until we knew whether he was negative.
7. In other words, that one fever would have had major ripple effects on many people's work, education, productivity, and ability to move freely. But because the test was done so quickly, those effects ended up being minimal.
8. And, of course, if he'd tested positive, the speed with which the test results came back would have made it much more likely the people he had come in contact with would limit their contacts with others until they were tested. That would reduce the chance of community spread.
9. Now, my son isn't high-risk - he's a healthy little boy, and even if he'd gotten COVID, there's a good chance it wouldn't have a huge impact on his health. But the point is that his health wasn't the only thing at stake in this case: the health of lots of other ppl was, also.
10. I understand everyone wants to get back to work, to life, to normal. But the only way to do that safely is to make rapid testing available everywhere, so that if someone comes down with symptoms, or is exposed, they can find out in a matter of hours if they're positive.
11. Trump seems to believe widespread testing is just a way of making the US look bad, and making it less likely we can get moving again. In fact, it's the opposite. It's the best way to limit the spread of the virus without going to back to lockdowns.
You can follow @JamesSurowiecki.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: