Would you take an at-home COVID-19 test?

Do you want access to a hopefully inexpensive test similar to a pregnancy test that could tell you quickly whether you or someone you want to see is infectious for COVID?

There is a YouTube video featuring Micheal Mina, MD, a well-respected Harvard epidemiologist with a plan that accomplishes this. Please search for his name on YouTube.The title of this talk is “At home COVID-19 antigen update." The video explains why this plan is superior to the current plan to control the pandemic which has proven to be dysfunctional. The failure is in the compliance.

I have contacted an epidemiologist at the CDC who thinks Dr. Mina has a good plan but that it will not work because people won’t self-police. I have dealt with their other objections using their own publications as a reference.

This brings me to the question - if you knew you were infectious based on the test, would you quarantine? This means no contact with anyone outside your household. They would also need to quarantine when their test became positive. The quarantine would include all the inconveniences attributed thereto such as even cancelling a job interview you really needed in order to survive. Remember nobody will know except you. These are tough questions but there may be work-arounds.

If infectious asymptomatic people are removed from contact, the math works. Why else are the cases rising.

This plan relies on a significant amount government money which gives me some pause. Should we do it?

ROGER HARDING

Sandpoint