Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines that suggest less coronavirus testing.
The explication from the CDC is that people who show no COVID-19 symptoms shouldn’t be tested, even if they were in contact with a coronavirus positive patient.
According to medical experts from across the country, including Dr. Rochelle Walensky, chief of the Infectious Diseases Division at Massachusetts General Hospital, COVID-19 testing is a crucial step in controlling and combating the virus and disagrees with CDC’s new guidelines.
The reality is that diagnostic and antibody testing is conducted in all states, but to be able to lead the game in the virus fight, surveillance testing is needed as well.
Surveillance testing means checking as many people as possible, even though they have no symptoms.
So far, the asymptomatic virus carriers are shown to be the worst for the spread just because they are not tested and have no idea they are infected.
For this reason, a lot of experts are against the new guidelines and say that frequent testing of as many people as possible is the key to successful prevention.
Walensky said, “I think we need to fully understand one of the best interventions we have against Covid-19 right now, in addition to masking and distancing, is testing, is the triad, is the things that we need to do. So, anything that advocates for less testing rather than more is probably the wrong move.”