To the Editor:

Re “At the Front of the Test Line: A Lot of A-Listers” (front page, March 19):

When my daughter returned home from college for spring break, she immediately signed up for a shift as a volunteer E.M.T. She treated and transported a patient who was diagnosed four days later with the Covid-19. Even though my daughter had an elevated temperature, she was advised to self-quarantine and wait because there are not enough test kits and her symptom was mild.

Reading the news that the rich, the famous and the politicians are getting tested and treated — many without symptoms — is infuriating and disturbing. Our first responders are putting their lives at risk. As a nation, we need to get our priorities right. In this war against the coronavirus, it is our first responders and health professionals who will help us win. They are the most important warriors.

Te Wu

Glen Ridge, N.J.

To the Editor:

In addition to testing health care professionals and those with symptoms, shouldn’t we be doing some number of randomized tests, like a “virus poll”? This would give a sense of the prevalence of the virus in the general, asymptomatic population.

The science of random sampling is well developed. Four or five thousand randomized tests should give us a reasonable feel for the percentage of the population currently infected. I would think that would be a valuable number to have. Now that we are starting to have test kits available in significant quantities, we should divert a few to provide a broader picture of the spread.