Testing Confessions

Telling people that "up to 50%" (I quote that because it's what I've heard, not what's accurate) of tests will come back with a false negative dissuades people from A) getting tests done because they think it'll end up being wrong anyway, and B) rips away the peace of mind people get from having their tests come back negative, and then they tell other people not to bother because it hurts and you won't get the right results anyway.

Yes, false negatives happen, and yes, there's a considerable rate of it happening (I'm seeing maybe up to 38%), but that shouldn't be used as a reason to *stop* people from getting tested. No one wants to go in and get a swab shoved up their nose if they think there's no point to it, and then you have people who get sick and are too scared to go get it checked out because they don't know if they'll get the right answer or not.

It's important to share accurate information, but it's also important not to use that information to scare people out of getting tested. At that point, you're just fear-mongering for the sake of preserving your personal opinions, not for what's right for the collective. Stop it.

#testing   #corona