Sorry 
I’m bad at collecting good news, especially on short notice.
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I have a number of friends in oregon that are testing negative after getting symptoms, and then testing positive on a 2nd test. One friend said that her doc said that 30% of PCR tests are false negatives.
This leads me to wonder how much help “positivity rates” really are.
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Sometimes there is a shortage of good news to collect.
I’m choosing to feel hopeful that some members of the public on this planet have the vaccine in their bodies now. This is the first moment of a turning point.
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Oh, no, I read it in my own email (I also get the daily briefings) and wanted to hide under a rock. I am already back to “hiding in house is just fine” mode.
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It’s interesting to hear your perspective on private versus public flagging. Some of the discussions I’ve been following recently have talked about how when we speak up publicly it gives us all of a chance to learn and makes people who feel harmed feel less alone. (I can also see how it can feel like ganging up on a person though, too.) There are hard lines on unacceptable behavior, but there are also a lot of gray areas.
I also think that some of the discussion up thread could be interpreted as fat shaming and ableist. That a person with a health condition and a higher age (even if talking about oneself!) should be prioritized lower for healthcare triage than a younger, perceived healthier person. It very well might be the reality of how it works, but I still don’t think it’s right?
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I think continuing this discussion might be better in the thread @Elle started rather than derailing this thread:
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My friends teenage daughter tested positive today. Friend and teenage son will get tested tomorrow.
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I’ve seen several sites quoting a possible 30% false-negative rate for PCR and unfortunately I think it’s pretty accurate. The thing is that when true positive case numbers are low, it doesn’t matter – given a negative test result, and low community prevalence, you’re very unlikely to have covid. But now that so many places have very high case numbers, we can’t rely on negative tests.
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So…we’re screwed?
vaccines. vaccines
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Vaccines! vaccines rolling out as we type!
There’s a light at the end of the tunnel but damn I’m tired of waiting for it.
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One epidemiologist friend in North Carolina
“The vaccine is a firehose…which doesn’t do great against a forest fire”
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You are super included and welcome my friend
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Yeah, husband’s hospital system won’t accept PCR tests because of the false negative rate. Employees have to go get the longer test in order to return to work, his took 48 hours to come back.
He just got his results back and thankfully he’s negative, but still not feeling well. At least we dodged this bullet for now.
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I thought PCR was the longer test.
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Oh maybe it is, I can’t keep them straight. Whatever the rapid test is the hospital won’t accept
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Thanks so much.
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Thanks for sharing that article. The explanation of how different changes (out of necessity) amount to rationing of care was easy to understand.
The only thing I think they missed was how the quality of care is also worsened if the HCW are burned out, tired of dealing with anti-mask hostility and conflict, and whatever happens to your brain when you’ve spent nine months being afraid of getting infected, infecting your family, and possibly all of you dying. People that stressed don’t do their best work.
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It feels a lot like expecting engineering to save us from climate change. But on a much shorter timescale.
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My Dad just got his first dose of vaccine (the Pfizer mRNA one) today!
Honestly I’m surprised he got one already - he’s a hospital worker, but not directly on the respiratory ward and is only 58 with mild asthma. I suspect there’s an element of them still figuring out logistics so it’s easier to do a bunch of hospital workers once a dose of vaccine has been opened.
But still, it’s one step closer to a weight of his (and my!) mind 
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