![]() We could have prevented surges of cases,” Mina said in the April 1 press conference. “Had we had these tests in a widely scalable at-home, simple to use fashion last summer, we could have prevented hundreds of thousands of deaths. Because the virus that causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, and its variants can spread asymptomatically, experts believe these tests could help detect them early, while people may be vectors of infection, and thus break the chain of transmission. You can self-administer the test at home-or, depending upon the need, at schools, workplaces and community centers, for example-so that you and the people around you can know almost immediately whether it’s safe to congregate. ![]() It is of such critical potential impact, in fact, that Harvard University epidemiologist Michael Mina-who has for months been a vocal advocate of rapid antigen testing for screening purposes for months-proclaimed in an April 1 media call that March 31 “ was a massively important day … on the testing front.” On March 31 the Food and Drug Administration effectively made a game-changing announcement: two rapid at-home antigen tests, Abbott’s BinaxNOW and Quidel’s QuickVue, will soon be sold over the counter (OTC) on drugstore shelves, without the need for a prescription. lag behind other developed nations in the deployment of rapid antigen testing? Recently, for the first time, we received a hint that our nation’s top health officials have been wondering the same thing. So why, more than a year into a pandemic, does the U.S. I then drove home, downloaded an app and waited 24 hours-all to receive results that, in many other countries, can be obtained in a fraction of the time without ever leaving the house. Upon arriving, I paid $175 to take a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. First, I booked an appointment at an approved testing center, about a 25-minute drive from my home. For a recent flight that required a negative COVID-19 test result, I went through a process so silly and laborious that it got me wondering.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |