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This is a solution that could work provided we have a rapid on the spot test. David States has recently proposed exactly such a test and apparently his company

This is a solution that could work provided we have a rapid on the spot test. David States has recently proposed exactly such a test and apparently his company is woking on developing it [1]. The major problem with all self-testing and isolation strategies is getting population buy in and what to do about poor countries. It is difficult to get population buy in if the economic cost of being positive is high (which it would be for many). If people have to isolate for weeks then it will be difficult to get the working poor to test and/or quarantine themselves if positive. This virus is so infectious that even a small percentage of people not voluntarily participating is a problem. It might be possible to overcome this issue via some rewards (say a cash payment), but this would need to be carefully structured to not encourage people to infect themselves and/or fraud. A daily test is unlikely to be viable for most poor countries in the world. I am not sure how we would overcome this problem outside of a cheap vaccine. 1. https://twitter.com/statesdj/status/1253794887062958081 https://twitter.com/statesdj/status/1253794887062958081

tim333 6y ago
I'm in a medium income country, Thailand and they do quite well testing people they think at risk and if you have it the government pays the costs of quarantine / treatment / some lost income. It works well. I don't see why similar won't work in poorer countries. They use regular PCR but a better test would just make things better I guess. It's odd that there seems a negative correlation between country wealth and how well they are doing with covid eg. Vietnam zero deaths, UK & USA a mess.
- danieltillett 6y ago
  I not sure I believe that Vietnam has had zero deaths. How many tests is Thailand doing per day?
- rhino369 6y ago
  The correlation is between countries who were harder hit with SARS. They were better prepared for this outbreak. But it's also a good deal of luck. Test and tracing works until you miss enough people that you get controlled community spread.

tim333 6y ago

I'm in a medium income country, Thailand and they do quite well testing people they think at risk and if you have it the government pays the costs of quarantine / treatment / some lost income. It works well. I don't see why similar won't work in poorer countries. They use regular PCR but a better test would just make things better I guess. It's odd that there seems a negative correlation between country wealth and how well they are doing with covid eg. Vietnam zero deaths, UK & USA a mess.

danieltillett 6y ago
I not sure I believe that Vietnam has had zero deaths. How many tests is Thailand doing per day?
rhino369 6y ago
The correlation is between countries who were harder hit with SARS. They were better prepared for this outbreak. But it's also a good deal of luck. Test and tracing works until you miss enough people that you get controlled community spread.