Testing

Show/hide descriptions

• *COVID-19 Testing: How Carolina built a frontline defense
  University faculty and staff worked tirelessly to build a state-of-the-art COVID-19 testing program, even taking efficiency cues from fast-food drive-through experts. Learn how they did it and why their work is critical for a successful spring semester.
  The Well staff, Friday, January 22nd, 2021
• *Decline in SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies After Mild Infection Among Frontline Health Care Personnel in a Multistate Hospital Network — 12 States, April–August 2020
  Wesley H. Self, MD*; Mark W. Tenforde, MD, PhD*; William B. Stubblefield, MD; Leora R. Feldstein, PhD; et al. MMWR November 27, 2020 / 69(47);1762–1766
  Among 156 frontline health care personnel who had positive SARS-CoV-2 antibody test results in spring 2020, 94% experienced a decline at repeat testing approximately 60 days later, and 28% seroreverted to below the threshold of positivity.
  
• Antibody (serology) tests: What we know and don’t know
  Public Health Insider. Official insights from Public Health – Seattle & King County staff, April, 21, 2020
• Contamination at CDC lab delayed rollout of coronavirus tests
  David Willman, Washington Post, April 18, 2020
  The failure by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to quickly produce a test kit for detecting the novel coronavirus was triggered by a glaring scientific breakdown at the CDC’s central laboratory complex in Atlanta, according to scientists with knowledge of the matter and a determination by federal regulators.
• Coronavirus (COVID-19) Testing Plans by State and Jurisdiction
  This page contains state testing plans that are part of the government response to the Coronavirus pandemic. These plans set specific targets for COVID-19 testing in each jurisdiction.
  In early April, governors in each state designated teams to develop testing plans, working with subject matter experts from HHS and FEMA. On May 30, these teams submitted their May-June plans, which are currently available to view on this page.
• Group Testing for Sars-Cov-2 to Enable Rapid Scale-Up of Testing and Real-Time Surveillance of Incidence.
  Pilcher CD, Westreich D, Hudgens MG
  J Infect Dis. 2020 Jun 27 [Online ahead of print]
  Abstract
  High-throughput molecular testing for SARS-CoV-2 may be enabled by group testing in which pools of specimens are screened, and individual specimens tested only after a pool tests positive. Several labs have recently published examples of pooling strategies applied to SARS-CoV-2 specimens, but overall guidance on efficient pooling strategies is lacking. Therefore we developed a model of the efficiency and accuracy of specimen pooling algorithms based on available data on SAR-CoV-2 viral dynamics. For a fixed number of tests, we estimate that programs using group testing could screen 2 to 20 times as many specimens compared to individual testing; increase the total number of true positive infections identified; and improve the positive predictive value of results. We compare outcomes that may be expected in different testing situations and provide general recommendations for group testing implementation. A free, publicly-available web calculator is provided to help inform laboratory decisions on SARS-CoV-2 pooling algorithms.
• Opinion - It Has Come to This: Ignore the C.D.C.
  Harold Varmus and Rajiv Shah, Op-Ed, NY Times, Aug. 31, 2020
  The agency’s new guidelines are wrong, so states have to step up on their own to suppress the coronavirus.
  Harold Varmus is a former director of the National Institutes of Health. Rajiv Shah is the president of the Rockefeller Foundation.
• Scientists baffled by decision to stop a pioneering coronavirus testing project
  Amy Maxmen, Nature, 22 May 2020
  News: Researchers looking to make tests widely available worry as regulators freeze the team that first identified US community sprea
• We tested all our patients for coronavirus — and found lots of asymptomatic cases
  Dena Goffman and Desmond Sutton , Washington Post, April 20, 2020
  In our area, which includes upper Manhattan and the Bronx, about 15 percent of patients who came to us for labor and delivery tested positive for the coronavirus; around 88 percent of these women had no symptoms of infection.