Allegany County, NY Your health department needs a new leader! The headline in my Shopper tonight reads that the spike in cases in Allegany County is due to "more testing".
A more accurate headline would read "Lower death rate despite higher case numbers is due to increased testing".
The virus doesn't disappear because you don't test for it, no more than colon cancer or breast cancer death rates would be lower if we didn't screen for them!
Increased testing means that asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic virus carriers are discovered and isolated before they can contribute to spreading the virus to others in our community, including those more vulnerable.
It means those who they've been in contact with are quarantined until it can be determined if they are infectious and therefore they are not accidently spreading the virus in our community.
As a contact tracer for NYSDOH for the past 6 months, I’ve seen the reality of this virus and its spread. I’ve spoken with countless people who were exposed by someone with no symptoms who then became extremely ill themselves, some with lasting effects.
The politicization of actual medical science is beyond appalling. Between this nonsense and the refusal of the Allegany County Department of Health to be transparent with the information that our citizens need to be as safe as is possible, it's clearly time for new leadership in the Allegany County Health Department!
Karen Patterson
Alfred, NY
