A woman makes her way to the Covid-19 testing site at the California State University Los Angeles campus on February 3. | Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Testing can do things for us now that it couldn’t do before.

There was a time when we thought Covid-19 testing would save us from the pandemic. As long as we had enough tests and got them in the hands of enough people, we’d be able to identify and contain outbreaks, and life would soon go back to normal.

Clearly, this did not happen.

But now that we have vaccines, death and infection rates are declining, some states are dropping their restrictions, more kids are going back to school, grandparents are giving hugs, and it looks like we’re in for a much safer and better summer than