Same here. They don’t seem to understand that testing is a vital part of control at ALL stages. At the beginning to test and contact and quarantine contacts, and then as things progress, to find out spread in society, to inform treatment and isolation of the exposed , who are driving the fucking spread of it.
And then testing people even with milder symptoms. Because 18m of not seeing granny when she needs some care daily is ridiculous if you know you’ve recovered and probably have some immunity.
We absolutely need to be testing. We need to be testing the dead as well. Can you archive samples over there or do you have massive restrictions Like us? The human tissue act was well intentioned after the alder hey scandal but there’s a case to be made for routine small tissue samples to be archived for all PMs. Even just a few blocks of tissue in a bit of RNAlater would allow us to go back and trace who was dying of this from the start.
we are keeping samples. that we do have supplies to accomplish at least.
testing those with no symptoms should be first on the list; then tracing contacts and testing them. all positives into quarantine.
I mean mass testing, every fucking body. then we can start on the medical workers. we can wait until the community spread is slowed, honestly.
then the sick. the sick are isolated from the community, there's no need to test. we are currently treating all respiratory illnesses as likely to be infected, it's the only safe way to do it- we don't need to test them.
last of all, the dead. the dead can wait forever.
I usually don't see patients alive. recently I've seen several, this is a very unpleasant death, that's true.
the CNAs are at greatest risk, and the ICU nurses. the nurses are doing the intubation, fluids everywhere. the CNAs are cleaning full bed pans and chux full of diarrhea constantly.
where I'm at, removing medical devices like tubes/catheters is fairly risky, bone saw to get into body cavities. things like that. we've been sending samples of presumed cases to epidemiology and pathology constantly. intestinal lining, lung slices, brain, and reproductive organ snips.
we've been putting slides together for docs coming down so they can potentially use visual ID to diagnose by mucus consistency. it's fairly reliable, so far, but things have been changing very quickly and it could be incorrect.
we need time.
edited to add; my throat has been sore all day. but I spent yesterday screaming all day at people and talking constantly, so.
if I get hot, I'll be working as long as I can, then staying home to be sick. I'd rather get it over quickly. I'm a smoker, so there's that.