In its first briefing since April 27, 2020, the White House Coronavirus Task Force meets today to take questions from the press. Testing and warnings will be their emphasis. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx are, for the first time since the global pandemic outbreak, publicly floating the idea of pool testing. 

Pooling requires casting a wider net and collecting hundred of thousands or millions of samples from a single region or single community. But instead of processing and then providing individual results, the samples are literally pooled together and tested as a group. The results of pool testing allow massive increases in the numbers of results that can be obtained in a single day. They also allow some health department contact tracers to see hotspots, and learn how the virus is moving through a population. It would also allow regions working hard to slow the spread, including New York, to show why their efforts like social distancing and masks have been so successful. 

Coronavirus cases have surged upward in a very steep climb recently in 32 states, reaching all-time single-day highs just yesterday and today. States with huge populations including Texas, California, Florida, and Arizona are among the 10 states currently suffering new COVID-19 case number increases in excess of 50% rises just since last week, suggesting a rejection of masks, refusal to social distance, and reopening too quickly have backfired. 

New precautions came out this week from the CDC about increased coronavirus spread among younger citizens and pregnant citizens, emphasizing that this pandemic is not just the concern of senior citizens. So called super-spreaders, those who are infectious and yet asymptomatic, are a severe danger. Pool test results would illuminate these projections and help get these important messages out.