Hidden Public Health Dangers of Rapid Covid-19 Test

RThe apid Covid-19 test has been deployed by millions of people across the country. The federal government has sent these tests to educators, students, nursing home patients, first responders, and other site states that can provide results in minutes.

That’s a good thing.. However, we are making dangerous public health mistakes when trying to get individual test results in a hurry. Important data about Covid-19 has been lost.

For months, the United States has struggled to obtain accurate information about Covid-19 cases and test them on various demographic groups. More information is lost when rapid inspections surge and are performed on sites that do not follow certain Covid-19 data reporting processes.

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Accurate data is essential to combat public health crises like Covid-19. Policy makers need complete and timely information about who tracks disease epidemics, identifies hotspots, and forms effective and equitable solutions. Without data, public health strategies are unplanned and ineffective.

The Covid-19 pandemic was a data horror story from the beginning. For months, Americans struggled to get the Covid-19 test and couldn’t detect cases of infection. The data that existed were terribly incomplete and often lacked important information such as the patient’s race and ethnicity.

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Data collection has improved since then, but it is still lacking. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website contains only racial and ethnic data. Half of Covid-19 cases..And the Trump administration is investigating For tampering In the CDC Covid-19 report.

In the absence of major changes, rapid testing exacerbates this lack of data.

The lab should provide the extensive data that accompanies the Covid-19 test.by Federal guidance Published in June, test demographic information such as patient age, race, ethnicity, gender, and zip code should be collected and reported.

These are sound reporting requirements. However, thousands of test sites across the country are beginning to operate outside the laboratory and are not equipped to comply with state and federal reporting regulations. This includes the majority of nursing homes (Covid-19’s main hotspots) and many emergency medical and clinics.It also includes unconventional sites such as: Community test pop-up..

As a result, the site may test hundreds of people a day and not report comprehensive data to local and federal authorities. Also, if reported, it may take some time before it is input to the digitized system. This means that important data, especially information about racial inequality, is missing.

Data reporting gaps will become more common in the coming months.A quick home-based Covid-19 test with on-the-fly results is coming soon On the market.. These tests give immediate results, but it is unclear whether people will be required to report the results and demographic information to the health sector. This means that millions of data points about Covid-19 can be lost.

Indeed, quick test results are very important to fight Covid-19. However, these tests must be accompanied by the requirement to report comprehensive and accurate data to local or state public health agencies.

We need to move our data collection efforts forward, not back. Fortunately, some lawmakers and organizations are leading the way.For example, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) And Senator Ayanna Presley (D-Mass.) Proposed with others. A few Bill The purpose is to collect accurate and timely data.The· Data: Elemental to Health Campaign CDC and state, local, tribal, and territorial health departments secure $ 100 million in federal funding over a decade to update health data and create more effective data systems for public health I am aiming for.

And that We have to count The Union — a group of racial and health inequalities organizations for which I serve as senior advisors — is a unified version of Covid-19 tests, cases, and health outcomes classified by race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and other factors. We are promoting data collection and reporting. ..

Nothing needs to be done to get accurate data on Covid-19 test results and other aspects of the pandemic. Otherwise we will lose the fight against it.

Joia Crear-Perry is an OB-GYN and founder and president of the National Birth Equity Collaborative.