Unless Germany was working with PSTI's technology well before the announcement, and in volumes much greater than thought, it couldn't have that kind of impact. I would suspect that they tested more, and were better isolating, including the use of masks routinely.
50 of so years ago, when I did some work in Japan, it was quite common then to see people wearing masks. I was told that they were ill, and they were protecting others. My point is, they've recognized the benefits, while it was uncommon to see Americans who clearly don't feel well protecting others with such a practice. Hopefully this is changing, and now we're recognizing that masks can be of benefit for all at a time when people who feel perfectly healthy are actually spreading disease.
I believe I'm like many American's I know, I cannot tell anyone whether I've had a mild case of coronavirus, or not. I've had no fever, but have had a mild sore throat for a number of days, as had my wife. Without testing, I don't see how I can know if I've had it, or haven't. If I have, perhaps I now am protected, and won't be easily infected again, but of course if I haven't had it, as an immune compromised senior, I should remain isolated. Life would be far simpler if people could have a home test, rather like a pregnancy test, that could be delivered in the mail and wouldn't even require lab analysis. Barring that, testing should be available at drugstores, etc that were they type that gave the answer in 5 minutes. No other form of testing machine should be used, other than blood testing which could show if you ever had it. I don't know precisely what they're doing in Germany, but I'd be willing to bet they do a lot more testing. I also don't understand why in the beginning we didn't use the tests successfully developed by others, and fouled up badly in creating our own. I believe the U.S. does many things well, but it's fooling to ignore what's working in the rest of the world and insist on creating our own way of doing everything.
Gary
