SebastianBlue
President, International Julian Alvarez Fan Club
- Joined
- 25 Jul 2009
- Messages
- 57,736
Unfortunately, there is a likely reason many NHS staff are not currently being tested. And I want to be clear, I am not saying I condone this at all, as I do think this is problematic for both trust in the response and for long-term health outcomes.
If they test positive they must be isolated and potentially treated (depending on the severity) which will remove those health professionals from the pool managing treatment, further reducing capacity as case volume only increases (including those health professionals ‘switching sides’, which is a big swing). You can see how things might spiral once comprehensive testing begins. Some of this is already going on with health professionals that have been presumptively identified as infected via symptomatic assessment, but is likely a small proportion of those likely actually infected based on continuous exposure.
Of course, that also means many of those health professionals that are infected (but not showing symptoms sufficient for presumptive positive identification) may be contributing to the transmission of the virus to individuals in hospital that were not already infected with the novel coronavirus, including those with comprised immune systems and other high risk underlying conditions.
It’s a horrible situation for all involved with no easy solution.