When hard data are ‘heartbreaking’: Testing blitz in San Francisco shows Covid-19 struck mostly low-wage workers
Early in the coronavirus outbreak, as the first infected patients trickled into Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, Diane Havlir noticed a troubling trend. Most were Latinx, most were men, and most were young. The infectious disease specialist wanted to understand why — and what it meant about how this new virus was traveling through her city.
Havlir, who runs the HIV/AIDS division at the University of California, San Francisco, knew she needed data, and a lot of it. While it seemed nearly impossible, she wanted to test thousands of people all at once, maybe even a whole census tract. She wanted to test those with symptoms and those without, in a Latinx population with a deep fear and distrust of the government. Many of her colleagues were incredulous.
