If your choice is to test all the students monthly -- e.g. 3% of them per day -- with a molecular test that has a couple day turnaround... This works pretty much only well enough to detect rampant, uncontrolled spread, and will not break a transmission chain very often.
Or to test all the students weekly -- 14% per day -- with an antigen test that returns results in 30 minutes... Even if there's some false negatives, you'll still interrupt many transmission chains and effectively lower Rt.
This is wrong. Too false positive and people will start ignoring the results. Thats what happened in the current climate. You need consistently good days otherwise over the long haul people will distrust and ultimately not follow.
It isn't quite that bad, because the tests aren't independent. You end up with a few people who are disproportionately likely to test positive and can adjust appropriately your testing strategy for them.
And even if that wasn't the case-- you keep a few people home (them + close contacts) until followup molecular testing returns a negative. Yes, it's a big hassle-- you're "falsely" forcing 10% of the student body into remote learning, but probably better than remaining closed.
Yes. And then it’s not just one kid. It’s the entire class plus teacher. It would be a fire drill per day. And then they would need to take the tests every day until they are cleared. It’s not feasible.
If your choice is to test all the students monthly -- e.g. 3% of them per day -- with a molecular test that has a couple day turnaround... This works pretty much only well enough to detect rampant, uncontrolled spread, and will not break a transmission chain very often.
Or to test all the students weekly -- 14% per day -- with an antigen test that returns results in 30 minutes... Even if there's some false negatives, you'll still interrupt many transmission chains and effectively lower Rt.