December 23, 2020
Employers find testing employees more trouble than it’s worth
Testing is “not a solution you can do for every employee, every day”
Mass testing, a critical tool to stem the virus’s spread, would appear an obvious solution.
But dogged by issues of cost — diagnostic tests start at around $100 each — access, logistics and employee privacy, tests aren’t part of most back-to-work plans. As health-care companies that work with employers in this capacity are fond of saying, there’s no silver bullet.
Another major deterrent is that Covid-19 tests only measure that point in time, notes Lauren Vela, senior director for the Pacific Business Group on Health, in this Bloomberg article. If a worker is infected shortly after being tested, it wouldn’t show up but everyone would be falsely reassured by the negative result.