Like vaccination, wearing masks and avoiding crowds, the self-testing method, done at home, is “an important measure in reducing risk”, epidemiologist and vice president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, Denise Garrett, told CNN Radio. this Thursday (13).
“Self-testing is a complement to tests carried out professionally, such as PCR, it is not a substitute, but it is certainly a measure to facilitate the immediate identification and isolation of cases, and this has a very large impact on the control of the pandemic”, he said.
The federal government must request the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) to release the use of the self-test against Covid-19. The agency said public policy use depends on clear government definitions of how the tests would be applied and their results collected and used.
According to the epidemiologist, self-testing is “easy and cheap, it’s like a pregnancy test, which everyone knows how to do, and it’s more affordable.”
She points out that, in the United States, where she lives and works, the government is already studying how to implement it as a public policy, with free distribution.
Denise Garrett also believes that the self-test should not impact the collection of data on Covid-19 in Brazil, especially in view of the blackout of information from the Ministry of Health.
“I don’t think we have much control at the moment. In terms of testing, Brazil has always been behind, we fly blind, we never test, we have no way of understanding the whole situation of the pandemic because there is no testing”, he warned.
Reference: CNN Brasil
