With the delta variant surging throughout the U.S., Biden administration chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci has advocated for more testing — including for the vaccinated. More testing is essential, but how we test is important, too.
The U.S. is testing fewer people than it did in previous COVID-19 waves, and this is a problem. The now-dominant delta variant spreads so quickly that every missed opportunity to catch an infectious person can lead to many more new cases.
In ideal conditions, a person who was sick with the original strain would infect about three others on average. With delta, it’s around seven. To this point, highly reliable PCR tests have been the backbone of U.S. screening. They’re not ideal for controlling outbreaks, though, because results can take days to arrive.