Two Out of Three Rule: Dr. Wen Has an Update + How to Do Coronavirus Self-Tests

Environmental & Science Education, STEM, Health, Medicine

Ed Hessler

Leana S. Wen, M.D. a Washington Post opinion columnist provides an update on earlier comments on her " two out of three rule" (before vaccines were widely available). Two of these conditions must be met: outdoors, masking, or distancing. If outdoors and there is no distancing requires masking. If indoors, both masking and distancing are necessary.

Here are her new two out of three rules: indoor interactions--vaccination, masking and testing. For "holiday parties or a work conference with dozens of people...you should opt for two out of three. If there's no food being served, require vaccination and masks, If you plan to have food and drink, or do not wish to have masks, replace masks with same-day rapid-testing."

Dr. Wen's position is "that vaccinations our path out of the pandemic. ... Workplaces that are not requiring vaccination should mandate testing and masking. If employees don't want to wear masks, there's a path out of it for them: get vaccinated, with regular testing as an additional level of reassurance so that people can freely associate as they did before the pandemic."

There is more but the column is accessible only to subscribers (free). Here is how to do that.

This is a very informative and useful report from CNN on coronavirus self-tests-- commonly known as home tests and over the counter tests. It includes information on purchasing, preparing and taking self-tests, next steps, an FDA "list of more than 40 FDA-authorized home tests, some of which have age limitations" (bold added) and a video with Dr. Sanjay Gupta.