- Thread Starter
- #5,921
Iceland
Iceland is testing its general population for coronavirus. A significant number of positives are asymptomatic.
Iceland has tested about 5 percent of its population for the coronavirus, and found more evidence that the virus can transmit asymptomatically.www.oregonlive.com
Well, I was honestly hoping that this would be a big nothing-burger and we'd find out that not only did the virus make landfall weeks earlier than thought but that many, many more people have already been exposed...increasing our R0 value but decreasing lethality and projected hospitalizations/deaths.
It's good news that many people are asymptomatic. Not so good that less than 1% have shown up positive. This would seem to indicate that most in Iceland have not yet squared with the virus (granted, how good is the sample?)...So, projections for hospital overrun and death, I assume, won't be able to be adjusted based on this data?
I truly think this is going to go endemic and, like a cold, no long term immunity will present itself. So, let's do what we need to do to get enough ventilators stored, ICU beds, supplemental oxygen systems, to handle surges from here on out...and get people back to work, understanding that our healthcare system will now have to absorb this along with everything else annually.
If the goal were eradication, then I could see shelter in place until eradicated as an effective means of reaching that goal. But if that goal is fantastical, then we need to plan for the more realistic. If realism means treating this as endemic, then we may as well get back to work and ramp up on what's needed to handle patient surges.