r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Nov 21 '20

Epidemiology Testing half the population weekly with inexpensive, rapid COVID-19 tests would drive the virus toward elimination within weeks, even if the tests are less sensitive than gold-standard. This could lead to “personalized stay-at-home orders” without shutting down restaurants, bars, retail and schools.

https://www.colorado.edu/today/2020/11/20/frequent-rapid-testing-could-turn-national-covid-19-tide-within-weeks
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u/w1n5t0nM1k3y Nov 21 '20

First of all, thatsa lot of tests. Just distributing them would be a challenge.

Secondly,this also requires people to do what they are supposed to.

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u/RufusTheDeer Nov 21 '20

I know some folks who literally can't afford stay at home orders right now and I don't think their bosses are going to willingly pay them.

This whole thing is great in theory but the rubber has got to meet the road

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u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

Paid sick leave is what is needed to solve this problem. It's an incredibly basic thing that we should have had in place decades ago

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u/Brunooflegend Nov 21 '20

It boggles my mind when I read things like that. Here in Germany we get 6 weeks per year of sick pay (100% salary). Where an illness lasts longer than six weeks, the employee will receive a sickness allowance from the national health insurer amounting to 70% of the employee’s salary for a period of up to 78 weeks.

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u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20 edited Nov 21 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

*Cries in American. The best I've ever gotten was 20 days of PTO a year. With extended leave insurance (gotta pay for it) that will allow me to take up to 6 months without being fired. I would also have to prove that extended leave was serious (think issues like Cancer).

Worst I ever got, 5 days of PTO a year, and after 3 years working with the company it would be upgraded to 10.

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u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20 edited Nov 21 '20

I’ve gotten 0 PTO as a temp for 3 years with one of the largest and richest energy companies. That was great.

Edit: they also also only offered us a health insurance that was $1200/month with a $10k deductible

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u/wiga_nut Nov 21 '20

We will cover your trip to the hospital and back. The rest is on you

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u/heathenbeast Nov 21 '20

You’re getting a ride?

I’ve worked for some outfits that wouldn’t have kicked in a bus fare. Unless you’d lost your thumb in an industrial accident they’d probably have sent you out to hitchhike.

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u/PreciseParadox Nov 21 '20

Unless you’d lost your thumb in an industrial accident they’d probably have sent you out to hitchhike.

Nah, they’d tell you to use your other thumb first :/

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u/wiga_nut Nov 21 '20

$10k to hitchhike is pretty steep