You absolutely can NOT isolate or treat what you’re NOT aware of. Put another way: you can hit what you don’t see. Consequently, in this COVID-19 battle for life testing is essential and on many fronts. This is not a wail of frustration about where our level of testing currently is (and it is very, very low-see number below). Rather it is a call to awareness and a raising up of our community, public and global health resiliency.
16,275,639 (Global COV2 Tests)
—————–
7,640,000,000 (World Population)
In this all out war, to test is to see an enemy that grows exponentially. Dr. Hugh Montgomery, Chair of Intensive Care Medicine at University College London, helps to drive this point home: “This coronavirus is very, very infectious, so every person passes it to three. Now that doesn’t sound like much of a difference (from the flu’s 1.3-1.4 ratio), but if each of those three passes it to three, and that happens at ten layers, I have been responsible for infecting 59,000 people”.
A Single Infection
Becomes 59,000 Infections
With Just 10 Rounds Of Transmission
Your mind probably immediately asked: “How long can ten rounds of transmission take”. U.S. corona virus data can offer a reference answer. On January 22, 2020 there was a SINGLE reported case in the U.S. Sixty-four days later, on March 26, that number had jumped to over 63,000 reported cases. The next 59,000 cases after that took only four days. As of this posting, April 15, 2020, that number is now reported at 637,196 cases. From one case to far over a half million cases in 85 days and growing. And to complicate the math even further, observers are almost certain that the count is over by orders of magnitude because only one percent of the U.S. population is reported to have been tested at least once.
This is why in one big sense we’re not winning this war. The enemy is growing far faster, than we are identifying and isolating it’s infection path. Our radar must get sharper and it must spread wider. The sooner the better.