Covid-19 Pandemic
 Here’s the latest news from the global pandemic. Swedish premier defends flailing immunity programEarly-stage results from Oxford-Astra vaccine test expected Monday Hong Kong sees 63 Covid cases in swelling wave What use are out-of-date test results? After chronicling the coronavirus outbreak from my home office in Minnesota since before the first case arrived in the U.S. in mid-January, I have been planning for a change of scenery. My husband, kids and I want to go to New Hampshire to visit family for two weeks. But there are complications. My parents both have health issues. My dad has a rare type of blood cancer that requires regular doses of chemotherapy, which weakens his immune system. My mother’s atrial fibrillation is being kept in check with medication, but it is a chronic health condition. They are two of the fittest people I know, exercising religiously every day and winning accolades for their efforts. They aren’t invincible. Levels of the virus are low in both states. None of us know anyone personally who has been infected. And yet. I have had a sore throat and a runny nose for what seems like months. A strep test three weeks ago was negative. Could it be coronavirus? I almost never leave the house. When I do, I wear a mask. Still, protectively, I got a coronavirus test at a drive-through at CVS. I am taking no chances.And then? Nothing. It has been a week since my drive-through test, and the results are not yet back. On Wednesday, I was notified it may take 10 days. We had planned to drive the 24 hours straight through to New Hampshire, to minimize any risk of picking up the virus in an airport. But is it safe for us to visit? What if I don’t have the results before we are slated to leave? My experience is hardly unique, or extreme. The surging number of cases and increased attention to the virus has created an unprecedented demand for tests, with more than 700,000 being performed in the U.S. each day. The result is drive-up testing sites with lines that last for miles, a dearth of supplies needed to accurately perform the tests and results that are delayed for days or weeks as labs struggle to keep up with demand.  A health-care worker puts on gloves at a Covid-19 testing site in the parking garage for the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg, Florida. Photographer: Eve Edelheit/Bloomberg The personal experience brings home the impact of the things I have been writing about for months. I understand the public-health benefit of testing, but what good is a test that tells me if I had coronavirus 10 days ago? If I was positive then, will I still be positive now? If I was negative then, will I still be negative now? It gives me no useful information for making real-life decisions. The delay also reduces the public-health benefit. While I rarely leave the house, I have had contact with others, typically wearing a mask. I don’t remember all of them. The benefits of contact tracing: lost to the wind. In the end, I will have to make a personal decision. It will be a gamble. How badly do I want to see my parents, who are nearing their 80s, versus how dangerous might that visit be? I don’t know if I could live with myself if I brought the coronavirus to them. And while they have been largely isolating at home, they do see my siblings and their families. Let’s face it, all of us have some level of exposure these days. We could just as easily get infected by any of them. And so we are left to make a decision, guided by love and fear and fewer facts than I would hope based on testing delays. I hope we make the right decision.—Michelle Fay Cortez Latest podcast The Story Behind the Six-Foot Rule Kristen V. Brown reports that one simple number is already changing our behavior, and will soon change the places where we live, work and play. So where exactly did the guideline originate?  Sponsored Content by Siemens America’s factories, power plants, transportation and hospitals all need technology and our technology is only as powerful as the people deploying and maintaining it. Keeping America moving takes more than technology alone. It takes a human touch. Siemens Ingenuity for life. What you should read U.S. Military Bases Add to Japan’s Virus Worries Okinawa sees spike in cases connected to American troops. Firms in Pandemic Fog Embrace Epidemiology Without clear guidance from authorities, companies fend for themselves. Greenwich Mansions All the Rage in Pandemic Buyers want space for offices, schoolwork, safe entertaining. Texas Readies Morgue Trucks as Virus Surges FEMA sends 22 units as officials seek places to store bodies. This Number Determines If Lockdowns Resume Share of “unknown origins” infections are more worrying than the total. Know someone else who would like this newsletter? Have them sign up here. 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