DAVE ROSS

Ross: Can Americans do what it takes to stop coronavirus in its tracks?

Mar 25, 2020, 8:06 AM | Updated: Mar 26, 2020, 5:18 am

coronavirus testing...

A lab tests coronavirus samples. (Greater Seattle Coronavirus Assessment Network)

(Greater Seattle Coronavirus Assessment Network)

If you zoom in on the coronavirus map of the United States, you see large areas that are dark, mostly free of infection. They tend to be along the highways between big cities. Here’s Dr. Anthony Fauci shedding light on that Tuesday:

“The areas of the country that are not hotspots, that are not going through the terrible ordeal, they still have a window of being able to contain,” he stated.

And so, to take advantage of that window, and to stop the spread early, there will be massive testing.

“We need to put a light on those dark spots that we don’t know,” Dr. Fauci advised.

That’s what worked in China too, allowing for immediate isolation.

“In other words when you test, you find somebody, you isolate them you get them out of circulation, and you do the contact tracing,” said Fauci. “We have an opportunity now that we have the availability of testing to do that.”

So listen to what he’s saying: You test and you isolate, you trace every contact, test and isolate, and repeat the process until every infected person you can find is isolated. In China, that meant moving thousands of infected patients – even those without symptoms – to isolation centers away from their homes.

The Chinese accepted that. But will Americans?

We’ve been demanding more coronavirus testing. But if we know that it might mean isolation away from home, will we take those tests?

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Ross: Can Americans do what it takes to stop coronavirus in its tracks?