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This Is Why You Wear a Mask!
Overreliance on testing without masking and distancing is a clearly weak strategy
The White House is dealing with numerous cases of Covid-19. President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, and Trump adviser Hope Hicks have all tested positive for Covid-19. As the cluster continues to grow, it’s increasingly clear that an overreliance on testing and a stubborn refusal to mask up and stay distanced is not the most effective strategy to prevent the spread of the virus.
“This is the perfect demonstration of the fact that there is no one silver bullet [for preventing Covid-19],” says Nahid Bhadelia, MD, MA, medical director of the Special Pathogens Unit at Boston Medical Center. “What always seemed obvious is that the administration’s strategy has been so heavily dependent and reliant on this testing. … No test is infallible.”
While daily testing is certainly a good idea if you have access to it, it’s important to remember that tests can be negative for a couple of reasons. Someone could get a negative test because it’s too early for them to be positive. Even if they are infected, the amount of virus in their blood or fluids may not be high enough to potentially be picked up by a test. There’s also the possibility of false negatives.
Health experts have always recommended that people layer prevention strategies for more effective results. “You can see why people not taking secondary levels of protection and tertiary levels of protection like wearing a mask, keeping a distance, and trying to not have long meetings indoors is important [for spread],” says Bhadelia. “Once that testing perimeter fell [at the White House], and one person got infected — potentially within a group of others who were not observing the other parts of the prevention mitigation measures that are important — you can see why everyone was vulnerable.”
Bhadelia says she is concerned that the White House cluster is going to expand. “The big lesson here is there are no silver bullets,” she says. “There are multiple things that we should do, including testing, to prevent Covid.”
