write a letter to the editor of a local daily complaining against the recklessness going in your locality during Lockdown
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Answer:
Regarding your full page Need-to-Know on page A9 of March 7 which gives information on the extent of the coronavirus and its symptoms.
I am not panicking about the coronavirus. I am 71 years and of the most vulnerable population, but have not done anything to change my habits or lifestyle. But I am deeply concerned about the advice given in the smallest letters at the bottom of the information.
It says that a person should ask to be tested ONLY if they have the symptoms (same as flu and/ or respiratory virus with fever) AND if they have recently traveled to an affected country or had contact with an infected person. Look, these symptoms can be mild, so that half the country could have the coronavirus and think they have a cold or flu.
If we only test this narrowly defined group, we will miss any epidemic until it is full blown. We will probably only end up testing those who are hospitalized and on the edge of death.
We need to engage in broad scale testing to isolate the infected and to prepare for the possibility of an epidemic. I have read that the tests can be manufactured easily and administered easily. Please report on this approach rather than just parroting the CDC.