Intriguing idea but details are lacking

Credit Tim Curtis and Jim Ryan for trying to stay ahead of the curve with their proposal to create a lab capable of testing every Niagara resident for COVID-19 in less than two months.

It’s an intriguing idea, though short of details which presumably will be fleshed out when the matter goes before Niagara’s regional council on Thursday.

We’re just not sold on the concept as offered so far by Curtis, who is president of Niagara-on-the-Lake Hydro, and Ryan, who is its board chair.

First, there are already enough tests available through Niagara Health, the public health department and doctors offices for anyone who needs it and has been advised by a doctor to get tested.

It makes little sense to test everyone. Not only can testing a healthy person lead to false-positive results — which end up wasting valuable resources to resolve — why would you test someone who shows no symptoms?

The best protection is still physical distancing and frequent hand washing.

As St. Catharines regional Coun. Laura Ip pointed out earlier this month, would testing everyone lead to a false sense of security and a lessening of the personal precautions that have worked so far?

Curtis has proposed as many as 50 testing sites could be set up across Niagara in order to minimize crowds and to conduct the tests quickly.

That, as well as the creation of a specialized lab itself, sounds very expensive. Certainly, controlling — and some day hopefully eliminating — COVID-19 is the priority for all governments now. But to fight that war, all governments are already spending money at levels that are simply unsustainable.

Even if the lab was built, and as its proponents suggest, it expanded its scope beyond Niagara to test for other areas as well, we come back to the same point.

There isn’t a shortage of tests and testing capabilities for people who need to be tested (and who are the only ones who should be tested).

It feels like this proposal is aimed at fixing a problem that isn’t there.

And by most accounts, within a year chances are very good that a vaccine will be available to offer some protection against COVID-19.

Presumably more detail will come out when this proposal goes before regional council this week. At this point, though, there isn’t a strong argument for Niagara to commit any financial support.

More worrisome is the fact that testing in Niagara is being under-reported and that no one has a true idea of how many people actually have been swabbed.

As reported in this newspaper, a patchwork reporting system means that outside of the Niagara Health hospital system and Niagara public health, there is no count of the number of tests conducted through other clinics, by family doctors and at long-term care homes.

All positive tests are reported; but the number of tests conducted that were negative are not, and that subtracts an important piece from the community health puzzle.

It’s important to know how prevalent COVID-19 really is in the community and for the public to know how thorough the effort being made to keep it in check is.

It should have been an easy requirement to make from the start, that every test administered must be reported — positive or negative — to public health.

While the picture wouldn’t be complete, it’s not too late to add that requirement. It’s important to document now (and for next time we’re fighting a pandemic) exactly what steps were taken and how successful they were.