How to End the Pandemic

The only way to end the pandemic is to isolate all carriers. That requires identifying them, which can be accomplished only by testing everyone at least once every two weeks.

Some would say that is impossible. The United States has a population of 330 million people. Testing everyone every two weeks would mean testing about 30 million people per day — roughly 40 times the current rate. There is no way the authorities will be able to do that anytime soon.

But that does not mean it can’t be done. We serve 330 million dinners in America every night. We can do that because we do not depend upon the government or FDA-certified clinics to cook them for us. If we did, we would all starve to death. We can do it because we are allowed to cook for ourselves.

The same principle holds true for dealing with the coronavirus. The authorities can’t possibly administer 30 million tests per day. But we — the people — can do it easily, provided we are allowed to do so.

There are now a variety of fast coronavirus tests that could be readily administered by businesses and schools and provide results within 20 minutes. These tests require only saliva samples, not deep upper nose swabs, and can be readily administered by practically anyone with very modest training. The FDA just approved “emergency use” of one of them by the NBA. The problem is that they won’t let the rest of us use them. Recently I was offered highly effective and economical rapid tests developed by an extremely well-qualified biotech firm. But FDA rules precluded transporting their tests across state lines. Upon appeal it now appears that the FDA might be willing to authorize such shipments on an “emergency basis,” but only for use in already overbooked clinics certified by yet another bureaucracy.

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Πηγή: nationalreview.com