UPDATED: Raimondo’s New Plan Is Counter to World Health Organization’s New Data
GoLocalProv News Team
UPDATED: Raimondo’s New Plan Is Counter to World Health Organization’s New Data
The comments were made by Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization's technical leader on the coronavirus response, during a media briefing in Geneva on Monday.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST"From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual," Van Kerkhove said on Monday.
"We have a number of reports from countries who are doing very detailed contact tracing. They're following asymptomatic cases, they're following contacts and they're not finding secondary transmission onward. It is very rare -- and much of that is not published in the literature," she said. "We are constantly looking at this data and we're trying to get more information from countries to truly answer this question. It still appears to be rare that an asymptomatic individual actually transmits onward."
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that the WHO "to clarify its position on whether people without symptoms are widely spreading the new coronavirus, saying much remains unknown about asymptomatic transmission. The statements Van Kerkhove on Monday — calling such asymptomatic transmissions “very rare” — touched off a furious scientific debate over the unresolved question and attracted widespread criticism of the organization.
Both Monday's and Tuesday's statements by the WHO seemed to mix pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic.
RI's Approach vs. World Health's
In Providence. Raimondo and Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott, the Director of the Rhode Island Department of Health unveiled "Rhode Island’s Early Warning Testing System," which Raimondo and Alexander-Scott said will inform the state’s immediate response efforts and inform data modeling and forecasting for the weeks and months to come.
But, it appears that the Rhode Island program runs counter to the science and strategy of the WHO.
Van Kerkhove was clear that the best strategy is to test symptomatic individuals, isolate them, and then follow contact tracing. She said based on studies from around the world including the countries that have been the most successful that the tracing of contacts of asymptomatic cases had little value.
As part of the "Rhode Island Early Warning Testing System," specific groups of high-contact workers who are asymptomatic can now be tested at no cost at a Rhode Island National Guard testing site (located at Community College of Rhode Island or Rhode Island College).
Hair professionals
Nail artists
Gym employees
Tattoo artists
Massage therapists
Child care workers
The Rhode Island Health Department said in a statement that "The Early Warning Testing System" is the third of three facets to Rhode Island’s approach to testing.
The first facet is Symptomatic Testing. Anyone with symptoms in Rhode Island can get tested, regardless of their profession or work situation. The second facet of Rhode Island’s approach to testing is Outbreak Rapid Response. This entails using testing as a tool to respond within hours of multiple cases discovered in places like congregate care settings, workplaces, and other high-density areas.