Set a goal of a million tests a day

More virus news:

Mark Sumner of Daily Kos notes that while coronavirus test kits are more available, we’re still a long way away from South Korea’s 20,000 tests a day. Even so, because the reports of deaths are so grim Sumner has a proposal:

Here it is: a Viral Census. Conduct widespread screenings for fever. Collect basic contact information on every case, even when there are 10,000 or 100,000 cases. Do drive-through testing, send mobile testing facilities to communities, send out nasal swab kits by the millions. Over 25 million people have spit in a tube for 23andme. We can get 100 million to stick a swab up their nose to save America. Turn every business that can manufacture kits into a kit manufacturer. Turn every lab that can test kits into a test regulator. Set a goal of 1 million tests processed a day. Then make it 10 million.

Text everyone their results as soon as they are in, and immediately instruct everyone who tests positive to self-isolate and report contacts. Keep a database of those self-isolated to make sure they have shelter, supplies, and access to medical care if they become one of those whose symptoms become critical.

He cites the village in Italy I mentioned that did test everyone and brought new cases to zero.

There is some good news. A Japanese antiviral medication does seem to work in lessening coronavirus symptoms and preventing lung damage. But it must be used early before severe symptoms develop (see testing).

In a separate post Sumner looks over a couple government reports – one US, one UK – that give grim outcomes to various levels of strategies of suppression and mitigation – the closed schools and social distancing. Even the best options will produce hundreds of thousands of deaths, the worst will have millions. And the measures must be kept in place until a vaccine is available – 18 months from now. We’re talking a “lost year.” And yes, the economy will show significant shortages.

I’ve heard a vaccine is already being tested on people – but it takes watching those people for 14 months to know the vaccine is safe.

People are grousing it is hard to get a test – even when it was a guy doing CPR on his spouse who was dying of COVID-19 – but easy for celebrities and politicians. The response of the nasty guy: “Perhaps that’s been the story of life.” Such a sensitive guy.

I mentioned yesterday the ventilator company could increase his production five times, though maybe not quickly. Hunter of Kos found a little morsel in a New York Times article that says rich people are asking if they could buy their own personal ventilator for, you know, just in case. Hunter justifiably ranted:

How dire do these individual wealthy snots think the situation is about to get, if they no longer trust that being wealthy will get them the top-tier hospital care that being wealthy has always, always, always provided in a healthcare system that is premised on the notion that health care should be dispensed only in proportion to each patient's ability to pay?

And is it just me, or have the wealthy have been trying for 20 years now to goad the world into a new French Revolution, one six-figure wristwatch and private ventilator at a time?

The Senate did pass the coronavirus relief bill the House passed last Friday. The vote was 90-8, so yeah, there are eight Republican senators who don’t want you to economically survive this pandemic. Another bill, the one with the $1 trillion bailout, is now in process.

This big bill is to include help for industry. Airlines are at the front of the line with their hands out. Elizabeth Warren has listed eight points that she says should be in such a bill. She remembers that nearly all of the 2017 tax giveaway didn’t help workers. So if a company wants some assistance they need to do such things as use the money to keep paying workers, provide a $15 minimum wage within a year of the end of the national emergency, be prohibited from paying executive bonuses, and set aside at least one board seat for a worker representative. Go Liz! Though we know the chances of that passing in this GOP Senate.

Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio noted the number of unemployment claims filed there: Last Sunday: 536, This Sunday: 11,995, Monday: 36,645.

A tweet from a guy who used to work for Marriott and applied for unemployment. A snag: Marriott said he’s not laid off, he just has a zero hour schedule. He doesn’t qualify for unemployment. His senator, Brian Schatz, noticed the tweet and offered to help.