Disparities in Covid-19 Testing Are Highly Problematic
Long wait times and backlogs are crippling the U.S. response
Despite the fact that the United States is in its sixth month of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic (and other countries began combatting the virus months before that), the country is still dealing with testing backlogs. In some cases, people are waiting two weeks or longer to get their results.
As Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH, the incoming dean of the Brown University School of Public Health shared on Twitter on Tuesday, testing is down in 24 states and is lower now than it was two weeks ago. A decline in testing is okay for states that have high testing rates and a low test positivity rate. For example, New York currently has around a 1% positivity rate that puts its transmission rates at South Korea levels (if these numbers are accurate of course — testing delays make it harder to get a clear picture).
But a decline in tests in states that are hard hit by the virus is problematic. As Jha shares, in 24 states where testing is down, the test positivity rate is 12.6%. “This is abysmal,” he said.
“These states need to be doing a lot more than they are,” Jha added in his thread. “They are likely missing 70–80% of cases. They are not over-testing — they are under-testing. Yet their…
