Scientists in some countries question costly Covid-19 mass testing
- Some countries are scaling back repeated, Covid-19 mass testing as health officials question costs
- Denmark spent more than US$2.36 billion on 127 million rapid and PCR tests in the last two years
For many people worldwide, having cotton buds thrust up their nose or down their throat to test for Covid-19 has become a routine and familiar annoyance.
But two years into the pandemic, health officials in some countries are questioning the merits of repeated, mass testing when it comes to containing infections, particularly considering the billions it costs.
Chief among them is Denmark, which championed one of the world’s most prolific Covid testing regimes early on. Lawmakers are now demanding a close study of whether that policy was effective.
“We’ve tested so much more than other countries that we might have overdone it,” said Jens Lundgren, professor of infectious diseases at Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, and member of the government’s Covid advisory group.
Japan avoided large-scale testing and yet weathered the pandemic relatively well, based on infection and death rates. Other countries, including Britain and Spain, have scaled back testing.
Yet repeated testing of entire cities remains a central part of the zero-Covid plan in China, where leaders have threatened action against critics.