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Do coronavirus case counts serve a useful purpose now?
Rapid at-home Covid tests are being used by millions of Americans and positive results are rarely reported to public health departments.
I woke up the day after Christmas with a slight headache and a stuffy nose. I chalked it up to allergies. After all, I was fully vaccinated and received the booster shot in early December. The last thing I thought I had was Covid. Yet, as the day went on, I couldn’t shake the headache and my nose was intermittently stuffy. I woke up Monday morning with a text from my cousin that said she tested positive for Covid after waking up with body aches and chills. I was all but certain that my headache and stuffy nose were no longer allergies but Covid. I went downstairs and tested myself with a rapid at-home test and 15 minutes later looked at the results to see it indicate I was positive for Covid-19. Shortly after, most people in my family also reported they were positive. We all tested positive for Covid-19 and yet none of us were able to report that to our public health departments.
The availability of at-home Covid tests has raised questions about the accuracy of counting cases. Since the beginning of the pandemic, major news outlets like the New York Times and Washington Post have tracked daily Covid…
