I'm so sorry - that's a lot of numbers! I hope the hospitals are still doing okay.

I wished that there were ways for people to report their at-home tests, and then for them to differentiate at-home tests from workplace/institutional rapid tests from antigen tests from PCR tests, and to remind us all on every coronavirus data site what those tests are, how accurate they are, and how they remove any possible "double-counts" (when a person gets an at-home test followed by a hospital-based test), so that disinformation and misinformation do not spread. The free tests are going to require some sort of logging somewhere, and that's if people are willing to share their positive or negative test results to reveal a better estimate of test positivity.

Meanwhile, it would be good to know about people's symptoms and what prompted them to take the tests - whether it be required for travel (international or domestic), required for a job because they remain unvaccinated/unboosted, due to symptoms, due to local events such as gathering with friends or attending a concert, due to weekly testing to be safe for self and/or the community, or out of pure curiosity/other reason. Negative test reporting is important because then it shows a more accurate test positivity rate, especially for those who chose to take the test because they were symptomatic. For those who take the test on a weekly basis due to their unvaccination status, it would also reveal test positivity for that particular group, when compared to those who are vaccinated; reporting of those tests should also be mandated by the companies that are required to test them when they allow their unvaccinated employees to continue working there (especially in places like meat packing warehouses, hospitals, psychology firms, research firms, food warehouses, manufacturing warehouses, dental offices, and otherwise; there really should have been mandates for those working in services with regular close contact with customers, such as in restaurants, bars, beauty salons, dental offices, psychological offices, and more, because they often don't have 100 employees, but they are nonetheless the superspreading areas that are most likely to community spread the virus).

There's a lot more we can do to reduce the spread, even without mandates. That is to get vaccinated, including boosted; wear masks whenever you leave the home; isolate those within the home who have the virus or any other illness; get tested regularly (weekly or when symptomatic); keep the air purified and recirculated with fresh air; keep hands and surfaces cleaned; avoid crowds and indoor spaces; eat outside or at home; meet people outdoors and do more outdoor activities; reduce travel to only essentials or travel safely while getting tested many times before, during, and after your trip; quarantine/isolate if you are symptomatic with any respiratory symptoms and/or fever; avoid unvaccinated persons as much as possible; set boundaries with everyone - including both vaccinated and unvaccinated persons; safeguard the vulnerable among you (such as those who are obese, older adults >40, those who are disabled, those who have a high-risk condition) by ensuring as safe environment as possible when meeting with them in-person.

The sad thing is that they are telling anyone high-risk to just stay home; that's the latest recommendation in the newspapers. The problem with that statement is increased stigma, discrimination, and hate for those who are elderly, greater than 40, overweight, obese, disabled, mentally ill, diabetic, and otherwise high-risk; people will tell them that they should be the ones to just stay home while the more able-bodied younglings can be free to go maskless, vaccineless, and do what they want. Meanwhile, the benefit of vaccines is also for the freedoms of high-risk people, not solely to remove clogged hospitals.

Most of the clogged hospitals are from unvaccinated, high-risk persons who didn't adhere to safety protocols. If they had gotten vaccinated, they could have had their health, which is a part of their freedom. But when you get sick, you lose your freedom anyway. Vaccines help freedom for all, not just for high-risk persons, though many of the antivaxxing high-risk and moderate-risk persons are the ones clogging up hospitals, not the vaccinated. So the vaccinated should feel free to enjoy their freedoms as much as the healthy ones who get vaccinated out of both their own health/safety as well as their civic duty to help others.