"Test and treat" is a critical strategy for people and society returning to more normal activities.
Now that the early responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have — sort of — been met (ie, minimizing infection, spread, illness, and death with masks, testing, contact tracing, social distancing, and vaccines), we are now facing the challenge of treating acute COVID-19. (Treating long COVID is another significant challenge.)
The progression from public health mitigation and prevent strategies, to vaccines, to treatment, is something I'd described back in the summer of 2020 in various presentations and discussions. Fortunately, "test and treat" is now possible with the availability of effective treatments for acute COVID-19. And importantly, discussions I'd had with various people as early as the fall of 2020 indicated that being able to get treated for COVID-19 (even without a vaccine) would make people more willing to engage in more normal activities — that is, things that could put them at higher risk of getting infected.
The excellent news is that there are now five different outpatient treatments for people with acute COVID who are at high risk for severe disease. According to the NIH's COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panelthree of those options are preferred, with two others being alternatives if the first three are not available or clinically appropriate:
