CONVEY

Covid-19 variants and rapid testing

2021 October 08 20:09 winksaville 2303¤ 285¤

From UCSF - "An Evolutionary Biologist Looks at Variants, and the Role of Rapid Testing in Covid"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWDGNrOqQfQ

I suggest watching the entire video, but if you have only a few minutes then start here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWDGNrOqQfQ&t=2990s) and watch as much as you have time for. If you don't want to watch anything the three takeaways:

1) There will be variants but probably/maybe the variants will not be worse than the Delta strain, and if we're lucky overtime variants might become less virulent.

2) Rapid Antigen tests are far superior to PCR tests for stopping the spread. The reason is that the 15-30min Antigen test can detect when your are infectious, approximately 3 days, and is negative when you are not infectious.

3) Your vaccination status is not relevant to testing as everyone can be infectious, thus everyone should be tested.

Introductory text:

This week, we cover two crucial issues in Covid: variants and testing. The highly infectious Delta variant has been responsible for changing the trajectory of Covid over the past six months. In the first segment, evolutionary biologist Paul Turner of Yale will describe how and why variants happen, whether Delta was a surprise, and what the future may hold in terms of additional variants. In the second segment, Harvard epidemiologist Michael Mina returns to Medical Grand Rounds. Mina is the nation’s most prominent advocate for focusing on testing as a key prevention and mitigation strategy. In the past few months, his calls have generated significant traction in the Biden administration. We’ll discuss the role of testing – particularly rapid testing – in creating safe spaces in businesses and schools, and where testing fits into our overall Covid strategy. The session is moderated by UCSF Department of Medicine Chair Bob Wachter.

TOC: - Introduction, Bob Wachter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWDGNrOqQfQ - How and Why Variants happen, Dr Turner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWDGNrOqQfQ&t=314s - Q/A with Dr Truner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWDGNrOqQfQ&t=1266s - The Role of Testing, Dr Mina: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWDGNrOqQfQ&t=1983s - Closing, Bob Wachter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWDGNrOqQfQ&t=4023s

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