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Maybe a year ago this would have been worth it. But the resources should be used for mass vaccination instead.

pmoriarty 6y ago
Unfortunately, it seems a lot of people are afraid of getting vaccinated. Those people, at the very least, should be getting tested. Also, it's going to take a long time for even those who want to get vaccinated. Finally, we don't know how long the immunity given by the vaccination will last. If it only lasts a couple of months people might need to get revaccinated again and again throughout the year, which will probably lead to even less people willing to be vaccinated. So vaccines are very unlikely to be a complete solution by themselves. We still need mass testing.
- rhino369 6y ago
  I'm going to make an educated guess and say that there isn't a ton of overlap between people who will refuse a vaccine and people who will voluntarily submit to continuous testing. Maybe I'm underestimating how fast they can ramp up production on these tests, but you'd need billions a month to just test everyone every week.
nobody9999 6y ago
>Maybe a year ago this would have been worth it. But the resources should be used for mass vaccination instead. Given that it will be at least 6-9 months before an appreciable fraction of the population can be vaccinated, frequent testing still makes a whole lot of sense. As to the effort/expense, you'd think we'd be able to walk and chew gum at the same time, no?
- rhino369 6y ago
  >Given that it will be at least 6-9 months before an appreciable fraction of the population can be vaccinated, frequent testing still makes a whole lot of sense. What makes you think we can ramp up production on these faster than that? You'd need a billion of them to test each America once every three months. >As to the effort/expense, you'd think we'd be able to walk and chew gum at the same time, no? Only if the resources used were entirely unrelated, which I doubt. Every public health offical's man-hour should be dedicated to setting up vaccination sites. Every medical manufacturing facility should be making vaccine components and accessories. I very much doubt you could set up mass testing of asymptomatic people without making trade offs regarding resources for mass vaccinations.

Unfortunately, it seems a lot of people are afraid of getting vaccinated. Those people, at the very least, should be getting tested. Also, it's going to take a long time for even those who want to get vaccinated. Finally, we don't know how long the immunity given by the vaccination will last. If it only lasts a couple of months people might need to get revaccinated again and again throughout the year, which will probably lead to even less people willing to be vaccinated. So vaccines are very unlikely to be a complete solution by themselves. We still need mass testing.

rhino369 6y ago
I'm going to make an educated guess and say that there isn't a ton of overlap between people who will refuse a vaccine and people who will voluntarily submit to continuous testing. Maybe I'm underestimating how fast they can ramp up production on these tests, but you'd need billions a month to just test everyone every week.

nobody9999 6y ago

>Maybe a year ago this would have been worth it. But the resources should be used for mass vaccination instead. Given that it will be at least 6-9 months before an appreciable fraction of the population can be vaccinated, frequent testing still makes a whole lot of sense. As to the effort/expense, you'd think we'd be able to walk and chew gum at the same time, no?

rhino369 6y ago
>Given that it will be at least 6-9 months before an appreciable fraction of the population can be vaccinated, frequent testing still makes a whole lot of sense. What makes you think we can ramp up production on these faster than that? You'd need a billion of them to test each America once every three months. >As to the effort/expense, you'd think we'd be able to walk and chew gum at the same time, no? Only if the resources used were entirely unrelated, which I doubt. Every public health offical's man-hour should be dedicated to setting up vaccination sites. Every medical manufacturing facility should be making vaccine components and accessories. I very much doubt you could set up mass testing of asymptomatic people without making trade offs regarding resources for mass vaccinations.