CDC, 11 States Say They Mixed Results of Viral and Antibody Tests
CABRERA: Welcome back. Health experts agree widespread and effective testing is essential to navigating life with coronavirus. But the reporting of testing results is not consistent across the nation which could be muddying the waters on tracking the movement of the virus. Back with us now is Dr. Esther Choo, an emergency room physician, associate professor emergency medicine and public health at Oregon Health and Science University, as well as cardiologist Dr. Jonathan Reiner who is also a professor of medicine at George Washington University. Dr. Choo, the CDC acknowledges that it was mixing together results from viral and antibody coronavirus tests on its Web site. And 11 states also confirmed that same viral and antibody test results, although a few now say they're separating out the numbers. Does it make sense to be lumping together diagnostic and antibody tests in reporting these numbers?</s>CHOO: No, not at all. I really did a double take when I saw that news come out because there's no reason to mix those. And in fact it's very confusing to do so. The viral PCR tests tell us what's happening -- it's kind of a snapshot of what's happening that week. What are the cases of people who actively have the disease? Whereas the antibody test tells us more what's been going on over the past, say, several months, how many people in total have already have the disease and it's behind them. Both of those pieces of information are important. But we've really -- when we talk about viral testing, we're really talking about on a week-to-week basis knowing how many new cases are emerging. I mean, that is the kind of information that's been driving our decisions to reopen. And we'll continue to inform the reopening decisions. It also is what we've been counting on as the denominator. In other words, when we talk about this is how much testing capacity we have, we've been kind of assuming that means this viral PCR were testing people for new disease. And so to hear that it's mixed makes us -- it just puts in a different place and it makes it seemed like I'm actually not sure how that happened but it really seems to inflate our testing capacity so now we need to sort of reset, take pause, make sure that we're separating out these tests before we can really state confidently how much testing capacity we have.</s>CABRERA: Dr. Reiner, would a nationwide testing system be helpful here to make sure testing across all states is consistent and what would that look like?</s>REINER: Some -- it would be incredibly helpful. Some groups have projected that in order to truly open the country and restore consumer confidence, we would have to do millions of tests per day. And you know, perhaps something like 30 million tests per week or more. A continued test and retest people across the country. We can do that. It just takes the will to do that. But what's happening is the federal government has shifted the responsibility of this to the states, so be fragmented the testing capacity and capabilities. The other net effect, by the way, of combining antibody testing with viral PCR testing is that it also has the effect of decreasing the percent positivity rate and the potential of falsely -- giving a false sense of reassurance that our positivity rate is dropping. So that was a very ill-conceived move.</s>CABRERA: And right now we obviously don't have enough testing for a lot of asymptomatic people to be getting tested and the CDC this week came out with statistics saying they believe 35 percent of infection is being spread by people who are asymptomatic. And they also said 40 percent of people who are infected are out there spreading it before they come down with symptoms even when they do end up getting sick. So, Dr. Choo, you know, when we come back to talking about masks and how they have somehow become such a politically divided issue, and we're seeing people ignore the social distancing and the mask guidelines, do you think people are just simply also becoming complacent about other precautions that they need to continue to slow the spread of this virus like hand washing, covering their cough or staying home if they're sick?</s>CHOO: Yes. I have been noticing there's so much less discussion about hand washing and trying not to touch your face or touch other things. I think some of these things are just so common sense and they seem so minor that we forget that there is no one approach to this virus and preventing it from being spread. That we need to layer in all these little things that together will have a good effect in aggregate. So all these cases, the social distancing, the good hand hygiene, disinfecting surfaces, wearing face masks whenever you can but particularly when you're close in to people. None of these things cost us very much. They're so easy to do. And it's not about -- I just want to be clear having listened to the mayor of Daytona Beach. It's not about actually keeping yourself safe. It's actually what you do to keep others safe because of what you just mentioned. If we can spread it easily without even having symptoms, then it's -- you know, you cannot say when you need to wear a masks or when you don't. We all just need to be wearing them all the time. I wish it weren't so divisive because it really is a simple and easy thing to do.</s>CABRERA: Yes.</s>CHOO: There's really fun and attractive masks being made. I think any barriers to mask wearing have really gone down. Let's just all do it knowing that that's something we do for our community, for our family, for our loved ones, for everybody out there. It's not just about us.</s>CABRERA: Absolutely. Dr. Esther Choo and Dr. Jonathan Reiner, thank you very much. We'll be right back.