-----------------------------------
COVID-19 contradictory informations
20th March 2020
-----------------------------------
I understand that for the population, getting grasp of the
situation is difficult. Contradictory news and guidelines are
announced every day. "Experts" who are mainly eperts of TV talk
shows come and give their opinion which is contradicted a few hours
later by a governement official.
What one needs to understand is that we are like an explorer in an
uncharted territory. Decisions are made based on the knowledge
acquired day to day and the evolution of the situation. Forcasts
are on short term.
I heard a few times some people asking why we are not testing
routinely the population. That's a good idea ... if you can do the
test. Last week, we had a meeting in the hospital where the heads
of the lab told us that the current capacity is 30-40 test/day...
They were planning to increase the capacity to 300 tests for this
week. If you are the only lab that can test a population of
1.000.000 inhabitants, and you are limited to 300 tests/day, the
math is simple. And the conclusion is straithforward: you have to
select who you will agree to test.
Why was the lab limited in the number of tests? Well, first there
are the machines needed to perform this test routinely. Then there
are the technicians who know how to use these machines and are
trained in the specific protocol of this test (you can not just
hire interim workers and ask them to start testing). And then,
there are the reagents that you need to order and are available in
low quantities.
In order to make an informed decision, you have to navigate in
between knowledge, forcasts, manpower, resources, individual risk
and populations' best interest.
This is unfortunately too much to ask to understand from a majority
of human beeings...
