Better off knowing

Re: Put an end to asymptomatic testing, Sept. 12

One of the central arguments of this article is that identifying asymptomatic testing is problematic because it causes unnecessary measures, especially quarantine procedures, when patients may no longer be infectious. To suggest we are better off not knowing whether asymptomatic people have COVID-19 is absurd. If asymptomatic patients really are less infectious, then the problem is with our procedures for dealing with them, not in testing them. The article makes similar arguments around home tests, arguing that people are better off not being allowed to test themselves. The assumption is that having information about whether one does or does not have COVID-19 will cause people to engage in more risky behaviours than if they did not have this information. Not only is this an empirical question for which we have no good data, but trying to effect desired behaviours by withholding information is manipulative and demeaning.

Laurence Ashworth, Associate Professor, Consumer Psychology, Queen’s University