UCLA Anderson Review: Comprehensive COVID-19 Screening Would Pay for Itself Many Times Over. “A nationwide COVID-19 screening program that includes quick verification of positive test results would provide economic benefits far beyond its considerable costs, according to new research out of UCLA and Harvard. A two-test protocol could spur economic recovery by greatly reducing the number of people and businesses sidelined by COVID-19–related fears and unnecessary quarantines, as well as lowering actual sickness and death rates.”
medical tests
Washington Post: Britain tries to swab all of Liverpool in pilot of mass coronavirus testing
Washington Post: Britain tries to swab all of Liverpool in pilot of mass coronavirus testing. “‘Liverpool can beat TB’ proclaimed a 1959 public health campaign urging the whole of England’s third-largest city to get X-rayed to screen for tuberculosis. The same attitude is being applied to the coronavirus, as Liverpool attempts to quash its outbreak by swabbing its entire population.”
As thousands of athletes get coronavirus tests, nurses wonder: What about us? (Washington Post)
Washington Post: As thousands of athletes get coronavirus tests, nurses wonder: What about us?. “As sports lurched back to life over the summer, health experts debated the ethics of entire leagues jumping to the front of the testing line. But ultimately the leagues, with billions of revenue dollars at stake, contracted with private labs to pay for the best and fastest tests available — a luxury many hospitals and other healthcare providers, reeling from the pandemic, can’t afford.”
Route Fifty: Why Employers Find It So Hard to Test for Covid
Route Fifty: Why Employers Find It So Hard to Test for Covid. “The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidance to employers to include Covid testing, and it advised that people working in close quarters be tested periodically. However, the federal government does not require employers to offer those tests. But the board overseeing the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal/OSHA, on Thursday approved emergency safety rules that are soon likely to require the state’s employers to provide Covid testing to all workers exposed to an outbreak on the job at no cost to the employees. Testing must be repeated a week later, followed by periodic testing.”
Anchorage Daily News: Over 1,600 COVID-19 cases never made it into Alaska’s database after a lab failed to report results for weeks
Anchorage Daily News: Over 1,600 COVID-19 cases never made it into Alaska’s database after a lab failed to report results for weeks. “Hundreds of positive COVID-19 test results weren’t reported to Alaska’s health department in the past month, one of several indicators of a taxed data reporting system and a sign that climbing daily case tallies announced by the state reflect only a portion of recent cases.”
Washington Post: Hogan’s first batch of coronavirus tests from South Korea were flawed, never used
Washington Post: Hogan’s first batch of coronavirus tests from South Korea were flawed, never used. “Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) spent $9.46 million in state funding to import 500,000 coronavirus tests from South Korea that turned out to be flawed and weren’t used, emails, documents and interviews show. As it became clear that the much-touted tests could not help detect which Maryland residents had contracted the novel coronavirus, the Hogan administration quietly paid the same South Korean company $2.5 million for 500,000 replacement tests.”
NPR: Man In Charge Of Coronavirus Testing In The U.S. On Why There Are Still Shortages
NPR: Man In Charge Of Coronavirus Testing In The U.S. On Why There Are Still Shortages. “NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly talks with Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, about coronavirus testing and vaccine distribution.”
ABC News: Labs brace for impact of infection, COVID-19 testing surge as Thanksgiving looms
ABC News: Labs brace for impact of infection, COVID-19 testing surge as Thanksgiving looms. “As COVID-19 cases have continued to surge across the U.S., so has the demand for testing. Diagnostics experts are now closely monitoring several concerning and converging vectors and what could be a perfect storm of infection this holiday season. Labs and clinics administering COVID-19 tests warn that the need for testing may outstrip capacity.”
Los Angeles Times: Some in L.A. are getting COVID-19 tests so they can party, socialize. Officials call this a disaster
Los Angeles Times: Some in L.A. are getting COVID-19 tests so they can party, socialize. Officials call this a disaster. “Desperately seeking to find a seemingly responsible way to hold dinner parties, some people have started to get tests for the coronavirus as a way to clear themselves to attend dinner parties without needing to wear masks or keep their distance. That’s absolutely the wrong thing to do, according to Barbara Ferrer, Los Angeles County’s director of public health.”
ProPublica: Rapid Testing Is Less Accurate Than the Government Wants to Admit
ProPublica: Rapid Testing Is Less Accurate Than the Government Wants to Admit. “By September, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had purchased more than 150 million tests for nursing homes and schools, spending more than $760 million. But it soon became clear that antigen testing — named for the viral proteins, or antigens, that the test detects — posed a new set of problems. Unlike lab-based, molecular PCR tests, which detect snippets of the virus’s genetic material, antigen tests are less sensitive because they can only detect samples with a higher viral load. The tests were prone to more false negatives and false positives. As problems emerged, officials were slow to acknowledge the evidence.”
WCVB: Long lines snake through parking lots at free COVID-19 testing facilities
WCVB: Long lines snake through parking lots at free COVID-19 testing facilities. “Long lines developed Monday outside at least two of Massachusetts’ free COVID-19 testing sites, causing one to close the queue to newcomers and another to ask people to wait in a separate parking lot. In Framingham, city officials said the line for testing outside the TJX headquarters was so long that it had to be split into two parking lots to avoid clogging the main street.”
The Register: Bio-boffins devise potentially fast COVID-19 virus test kit out of a silicon wafer and machine-learning code
The Register: Bio-boffins devise potentially fast COVID-19 virus test kit out of a silicon wafer and machine-learning code. “Boffins have demonstrated that machine-learning algorithms may be able to help scientists identify viruses, and could even be used to develop more efficient tests for the presence of the COVID-19 coronavirus in the near future.”
How Ticketmaster Plans to Check Your Vaccine Status for Concerts: Exclusive (Billboard)
Billboard: How Ticketmaster Plans to Check Your Vaccine Status for Concerts: Exclusive. “Many details of the plan, which is still in development phase, will rely on three separate components — the Ticketmaster digital ticket app, third party health information companies like CLEAR Health Pass or IBM’s Digital Health Pass and testing and vaccine distribution providers like Labcorp and the CVS Minute Clinic.”
NBC New York: NYC Debuts At-Home COVID Test Kits as Part of Care Packages — Here’s How They Work
NBC New York: NYC Debuts At-Home COVID Test Kits as Part of Care Packages — Here’s How They Work. “New Yorkers who have been notified by contact tracers that they may have been exposed to COVID-19, have started receiving free at-home coronavirus test kits, a new tool particularly important ahead of the upcoming holidays.”
These Towns Trusted a Doctor to Set Up Covid Testing. Sample Patient Fee: $1,944. (New York Times)
New York Times: These Towns Trusted a Doctor to Set Up Covid Testing. Sample Patient Fee: $1,944.. “Rebecca Sussman got a coronavirus test because town officials in Bedford, N.Y., encouraged her to…. Ms. Sussman, 51, took her whole family to get tested, and the results came back negative. Then the paperwork came: $6,816 had been charged to insurance for four coronavirus tests. Ms. Sussman’s fees alone were $1,944.