Universal testing in the United States may be on the way, but it is not around the corner. Acknowledging that regrettable reality means that, in the meantime, we have to decide how to allocate wisely our scarce testing resources. Unfortunately, with limitations on testing we seem to be testing the wrong people for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Most authoritative sources, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recommend testing people with symptoms. Though that sounds reasonable, it leads to squandering our testing resources on people who we already know are probably infected. Moreover, with high false negative rates from some of the tests, even a negative test in someone with…