In February, the Biden administration said it hadn’t ruled out mandatory Covid-19 testing for domestic air travel. Meanwhile, businesses continue to the debate the merits of mandatory vaccinations for some workers. I turned to readers of this newsletter for opinions on these measures. Here’s what you had to say:
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Dr. Robert Pearl is the former CEO of The Permanente Medical Group, the nation’s largest physician group. He’s a Forbes contributor, bestselling author, Stanford University professor, and host of two healthcare podcasts. Pearl’s next book, “Uncaring: How the Culture of Medicine Kills Doctors & Patients,” is available for presale now. Follow him on Twitter @RobertPearlMD.
As a frequent traveller across countries and continents in the time of covid19 the insufficient logic and capacity of testing even now a year into the pandemic is somewhat distressing. Testing demands vary widely with most authorities accepting only PCR still despite the solid arguments that increasing the scope and frequency of widespread testing could be essential to helping end the situation as it is. So agree with the testing on airlines but there are so many issues beyond that on testing that must and now can be addressed (massive roll-outs of rapid FDA cleared tests)N Engl J Med 2020; 383:e120
DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp2025631
With the relatively high false negative rate of current rapid testing products (varies greatly depending on days since exposure) , I could still be sitting next to someone who is infected and asymptomatic. Rapid PCR tests are a different story – I agree with the above comments in that case: test before air, rail, and sea travel!