COVID Watch: Mixed messages coming from Louisville mayor, Gov. Andy Beshear on testing

By Deborah Yetter and Grace Schneider

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — After the pandemic hit a spring spike, backed off a bit, then staged a troubling comeback starting last month, public health and political leaders have fielded repeated questions about when it's appropriate to get tested for COVID-19.

And the messages from Kentucky's largest city and Frankfort seem to highlight that not everybody is on the same page.

Gov. Andy Beshear, who said he gets a test every two weeks, has been urging Kentuckians to go get a virus test whether they think they've been infected or not.

That recommendation conflicts with Dr. Sarah Moyer, Louisville's chief public health strategist, who said during Mayor Greg Fischer's update last week that "we don't have enough tests for everyone to get tested."

Get one if you've been exposed or if you're experiencing symptoms, she said.

Epidemiologists we've interviewed recently tend to agree with Moyer. They say they wish everyone could get a test, again and again, since the screenings just reflect findings the day you were tested. Having more widespread community testing also can identify people who have been infected and have no symptoms.

It can also provide a better idea of the prevalence rates, help identify hot spots and track the spread. But testing capacity is strained. In the last month, as the virus has flared anew in Kentucky, Indiana and other states, reagents and other supplies have gone to hot spots.

Locally:U of L expands community drive-thru testing in partnership with state

National labs such as Quest Diagnostics are so swamped that many people have waited two weeks or longer for results — which is a concern because Moyer and other health authorities urge people to self-quarantine until they get results back.

Norton Healthcare in Louisville asked U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth and Sen. Mitch McConnell in late July to lend a hand after vendors cut and canceled on sending testing supplies.

Meanwhile, the lag on results hampers the chain of events for contact tracing to work effectively. Say you've been alerted by contact tracers with Metro Louisville that you were exposed to somebody who tested positive. You're instructed, in turn, to get tested and to quarantine for 14 days or until your own results come back.

If you also turn up positive, then alerting people you've exposed means relatives and friends you interacted with won't know for several days that it's their turn to get a test or take precautions. It all threatens to increase the spread.

Beshear stuck with his directive Thursday when The Courier Journal asked him about testing capacity and his come-all approach. Kentucky can do both, he said: screen people with symptoms and those who believe they were exposed and those who want to check themselves as a precaution.

Limiting testing early on kept many away, he said. "I remember when we had our very first drive-thru location in Pike County. We were still in the 'you need to be a front-line worker, you need to have symptoms.' And nobody came."

While officials were prepared to screen 400 to 500 a day, the "double-digits" response was disappointing. Then "we opened it up and we were at full capacity the next day. And we identified a number of (new) cases," he said.

Between capacity added in the last week at the University of Louisville and 700 additional kits per day sent to Norton, Beshear said, the state should be able to fast track those with symptoms and front-line workers, and still perform broader community testing.

That may involve reserving hours or a number of tests per day for broader testing, but "we can do both and we must do both. If we don't have a good idea of our overall community spread, don't have enough testing of the general community, we can't take the effective steps we need to, or justify them to the public."

Moyer said in an email that the city sticks by its recommendations, given the compounded problems with testing capacity.

The mixed messages may seem minor. But the patchwork of pandemic policies, guidelines and mandates from President Donald Trump, governors and mayors isn't helpful.

That point was underscored by Longwoods International, which tracks the travel industry and consumer sentiment. The organization reported last week confidence among travelers in official information sources about the coronavirus is declining noticeably.

The percentage of travelers relying on information on the safety of U.S. travel from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or other federal health agencies has dropped from 57% on April 22 to 45% on July 29, the company reported.

Confidence in information from the White House coronavirus task force also slipped, from 24% in April to 17% in July. State health officials also are less trusted, seeing confidence decline from 36% in April to 27% in July.

“The mixed messages and results in response to the pandemic appear to be weakening public trust in official information sources at all levels,” Amir Eylon, the company's president and chief executive, said in statement with the study results. “Growing distrust in official information will only make a coordinated response to COVID-19 more difficult.”

COVID-19 resources

For more information, see the state's website, govstatus.egov.com/kycovid19, or call the COVID-19 hotline, 800-722-5725. Information on COVID-19 test sites is available on the website.

Information also is available at louisvilleky.gov/government/health-wellness from the Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness Department.

Deborah Yetter: dyetter@courier-journal.com; 502-582-4228; Twitter: @d_yetter. Grace Schneider: 502-582-4082; gschneider@courierjournal.com; Twitter: @gesinfk.