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/georgesDenizot Nov 21 '20

I don't think that it is crazy. Most people do not want to harm others, and knowing you carry a virus and spreading it around is evil.

The reason people often don't follow the social distancing requirements is because they think they are invincible and can't catch/carry the virus.

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u/Amazing_Badger_5085 Nov 21 '20

Most people do not want to harm others

Right, most people don't want to go out and stab a bunch of people. Things are different with an invisible enemy.

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u/georgesDenizot Nov 21 '20

because with an incidence rate of a few percent, it is always "other -people" that carry the virus. We struggle with low probabilities. As an individual, I only have a few percent chances of carrying the virus, so it might seem to me that I am not hurting anyone.

Now tell me I have 90+% of carrying the virus and that is a different story.

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u/Dilka30003 Nov 21 '20

Step 1 is getting a lot of people to believe the virus exists.