This summer marks the 45th anniversary of the movie Jaws. What does that have to do with Covid-19? A month ago I told patients that if they avoided jails, meat packing plants and nursing homes that they stood a pretty good chance of not getting Covid-19. I should have added beaches and bars to the list. People thought that when Memorial day rolled around that the danger was passed and they no longer needed to adhere to social distancing and mask wearing. They were wrong. Now the infection rate is climbing, particularly in those people 35 and under.
While these people may be at lower risk from dying of the virus, the death rate isn’t 0% and they can get seriously ill. They are filling the hospitals and also passing the virus onto the more vulnerable. This is a recipe for disaster, but if we all do what has been proven to be effective, this can be turned around.
We get calls every day from asymptomatic people who want to be tested for Covid-19. Testing asymptomatic individuals is of very limited value and utilizes swabs and chemicals that are in short supply. Here is some useful information for testing for Covid-19 that was faxed to me late yesterday afternoon.
Sorry for the quality of the fax. It’s important to know the limitations of testing. As I said in my last blogpost, timing is everything. Unless there is a legal requirement for the test in an asymptomatic individual, it probably shouldn’t be done.
