Skip to main content

“I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.” ~~ John G. Diefenbaker

Don’t rush to get tested. Testing negative for COVID-19 doesn’t mean you won’t pick it up and be positive next week – and the cost of repeatedly testing everybody for every symptom will be exorbitant


SHARED WITH PERMISSION ... from a musical friend of mine who is an ER physician in Penticton

Do Not Rush to Get Tested for COVID-19!!

Hello folks. As one of your local emergency physicians, I am going to take the role of devil's advocate and explain why I personally believe that testing is a waste of time for the general population. 

Although the test is good at telling you if you have COVID-19, its sensitivity appears to be no higher than 75%.

In medical terms, this means that 25% of people who have COVID-19 would actually test NEGATIVE. Whether you test positive or negative, still means that you need to SELF-ISOLATE.

If you get a false sense of security from a negative swab, you may loosen your isolation precautions and infect many people.

If you have symptoms and test negative (and actually are negative), then you may have something else like Influenza A ... H1N1 ... H3N2 ... Influenza B ... Parainfluenza ... Rhinovirus ... Non-COVID coronavirus ... Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV - there ACTUALLY is an outbreak of HMPV in one of our Penticton LTC facilities at the moment!).

That means YOU STILL need to SELF-ISOLATE!!

Testing negative, and not having COVID-19, does not mean you will not pick it up and be positive next week! The cost to society of repeatedly testing everybody for every symptom would be exorbitant.

As a society, lets save this money for rebuilding society after the pandemic passes. Save society money and SELF-ISOLATE.

Testing positive, early or not, WILL NOT ALTER the course of the disease, nor does it change your management!


Some/most (80+ %) will have mild disease (even though they personally feel like their illness is severe) ... about 20% will require hospitalization for oxygen ... and a subset of these will become critical irrespective of test results. 

Stay at home and SELF-ISOLATE.

If you don't actually have COVID-19, going into a hot zone (where all the COVID-19 positive patients are going to be tested), is needlessly putting yourself at higher risk of contracting it!

Stay at home and SELF-ISOLATE!

If you actually have COVID-19 but are well enough to make it to a testing center, then you more than likely are quite mild, and are then unnecessarily exposing and putting health care personnel at risk of getting it, not to mention the personal protective equipment that could be better used elsewhere.

Better to stay at home and SELF-ISOLATE.

Please do not show up to the ER because you feel like you want to be tested, or if have mild symptoms ... stay at home and SELF-ISOLATE.

If you feel increasingly short of breath and have chest pain when you breath in/out, then please, by any means, come into the ER.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Budget 2027: After a Decade of Decline, NDP Budget Delivers an Assault on Seniors, Working Families, and Small Businesses

Peter Milobar, BC Conservative Finance Critic, condemned the NDP government’s latest budget as the result of a decade of decline that has left British Columbians broke, unsafe, and paying more for less.   “After ten years of NDP mismanagement, this budget is an assault on seniors, working families, and the small businesses that drive our economy,” said Milobar. “The NDP have turned their back on the people working hardest to make ends meet and the seniors who built this province.” Milobar pointed to a new $1.1 billion annual income tax increase and warned that the government is piling new costs onto households already struggling with affordability.   “This government keeps asking British Columbians for more, while delivering less,” Milobar said. “The question people are asking is simple: Where has all the money gone?” Milobar noted that BC has gone from a surplus in the first year of NDP government to a projected deficit of more than $13 billion this year, while prov...
Post a Comment
Read more

WARD STAMER -- Those are REAL forestry numbers, not just made-up numbers

The following is a condensed version of remarks Kamloops – North Thompson MLA Ward Stamer’s made, regarding Forestry, in the BC Legislature, on Tuesday afternoon (02/24/2026)   Let’s talk a little bit, when we talk about Budget 2026, about the forest industry, which is near and dear to my heart. Forestry remains one of British Columbia’s foundational industries. It’s a pillar that built this province. Entire communities depend upon it. Interior towns, northern communities, Vancouver Island regions, the Kootenays, the Lower Mainland, with manufacturing facilities in Surrey and Maple Ridge, just to name a few — everywhere in BC is touched by forestry. One word that was not mentioned in Budget 2026 was forestry. That’s a shame, an incredible shame. It wasn’t an oversight – it was intentional. This government has driven forestry into the ground .... INTO THE GROUND! We can talk a little bit about some of the initiatives that this government has brought forth, to try to resurrect ...
Post a Comment
Read more

FORSETH -- Before anyone gets excited about one poll showing a candidate with a 25 percent lead, and 44 percent support overall, let’s give it a few more weeks

Is this based in reality -- how accurate are the numbers? In the past couple of weeks a couple of candidates, for the leadership of the BC Conservative Party, have been presenting polling results that they lead the pack – one even going so far as to say they have a lock on 44% of those who will be voting, and a twenty-five percent lead over the individual ranked second. I am going to say that this one, from Kerry-Lynne Findlay, is highly suspect. First of all the company conducting the poll, ERG National Research, is not a Member of Industry Bodies (the Canadian Research Insights Council), meaning they do not adhere to established industry standards for research, such as transparency, privacy, and methodological rigor. AI Overview states that ... based on alerts from the Canadian Research Insights Council (CRIC) and reports, ERG National Research should be treated with extreme caution regarding its reliability, and legitimacy, in conducting political polling. Before I even read this in...
Post a Comment
Read more

Labels

Show more