McCormick: Re-opening economy must be driven by science

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - The founder of the UTHealth School of Public Health in Brownsville says the economy should not be ‘re-opened’ until there has been a lot more testing for the coronavirus. World-renowned epidemiologist Dr. Joseph McCormick was asked when it will be safe for shelter at home measures to be relaxed during a webinar hosted by Congressman Filemon Vela.“The testing issue continues to be a problem. It is a major obstacle even to re-opening businesses to a large degree because we don’t have adequate testing,” McCormick said.McCormick’s past experience includes testing patients with Lassa fever in Africa. He has written over 200 scientific publications related to epidemiology with co-authors from over 20 different countries.McCormick said the test to see if someone is infected is called a PCR test. He said it usually takes 24 to 48 hours to achieve a result, though there are some rapid tests that are online.“But, here is the biggest problem with testing that everyone is experiencing: as one of my colleagues put it, the reagents that are required to make these tests are coming in a garden hose as opposed to a canal. This is one of the major things that is holding up the ability to expand our testing.”Right now, McCormick said, health officials are using criteria on whether people have the symptoms for COVID-19 or not, or whether they have been in contact with a known case, to see whether they get tested.“We would love to be able to expand that but I don’t see that happening any time soon because of the lack of reagents. We all would like to have more reagents.”This podcast features the analysis of Dr. McCormick, along with Angela Burton of the Small Business Administration, and Julian Alvarez of the Texas Workforce Commission. Go to www.riograndeguardian.com to read the latest border news stories and watch the latest news videos.