“We took about 850 people off the street who were walking around, asymptomatic,” said Pollock. “Each infection gets prevented, like, three more infections. And for each of these three, three more are avoided and so on. It has to make a difference, right? “
Outside the testing center, Mr. Duey, a web developer, said that testing twice a week made it possible for his 14-year-old son, Bowen, to spend time with school friends and take remote classes with masks on each other ‘ backyards. It also allowed his wife, a practicing nurse, to isolate herself quickly after being infected in December.
Hayes, 71, and his wife, Paula Ash, 70, who were taking the test before a vaccine appointment, said they saw TV ads about free tests produced by the university and came at the request of their daughter, a local professor. Dr. Pham, a family doctor who had already taken the vaccine, saw the tests as a way for her teenagers to finally visit their grandparents, who they hadn’t seen in months.
“Hey, prevention is better than cure,” said Marc Hicks, 54, a school district official whose infection was detected in November three days before showing symptoms. The waiting time, he said, allowed him to notify his supervisor at work and enabled contact trackers to identify the people he could have infected. He still comes every week, he said, because he cannot be sure whether he is immune or not.