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Harvard estimates U.S. Needs 20M Covid-19 Tests Per Day to Reopen Economy
- amscanne 6y agoThis is about a report by the “Safra Center for Ethics”. The Harvard Global Health Institute estimates that 500,000 tests per are needed. Given the focus of these institutions, I think that the global health institute is a more meaningful report (and people actually pay attention to it). Therefore, the headline is misleading. In fact, the original headline explicitly says “Harvard’s Safra Center” and not just “Harvard”.
- SiVal 6y agoNo, that's not what "Harvard" estimates. One group, including "ethics experts", is estimating that it would take that many daily tests to completely eliminate all "social distancing" without any risk. Whether correct or not, you could reopen the economy fully in the official sense, and people would still distance themselves somewhat, be more likely to get takeout than eat in a crowded restaurant, wash their hands more often, be more likely to wear masks on public transport, etc. You'd get some ongoing level of excess illness that is very hard to predict but is not likely at this point for the US to get much worse than Sweden, which remained officially "open".