“What concerns me even more is what might be happening in communities and among families with fewer resources. The shift away from traditional COVID-19 testing has left some health experts worried about continued issues of access to adequate healthcare and preventative health tools, such as testing and antiviral treatments, to protect vulnerable communities.Īccording to ABC News' analysis last summer of pharmacy locations across the country, there are 150 counties where there is no pharmacy, and nearly 4.8 million people live in a county where there's only one pharmacy for every 10,000 residents or more. ![]() “The latest BA.2 surge was masked by the shift in testing behavior and likely delayed decisions on public health interventions.” “While home testing has created broader population access to infection status and hopefully better access to treatment, it has also created a major blind spot in our public health surveillance efforts,” John Brownstein, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at Boston Children's Hospital and an ABC News contributor, said. In recent months, states from coast to coast, have moved to shutter public testing sites, with an abundance of rapid COVID-19 tests now available in pharmacies and through the federal government. ![]() ![]() “If cases are really a lot higher than what we are seeing, it means the ratio of hospitalizations to cases and deaths to cases is even lower than what we are seeing, and we are already seeing a ‘decoupling’ between cases and hospitalizations and deaths,” Doron said, which could indicate the virus is moving closer to a form that Americans can live with.Įven so, Doron added, “at a population level, however, COVID poses more risk because there are so many cases, and hospitals are already so full with both COVID and non-COVID patients.”
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