Three highly respected American scientists threw a pebble in the pond of COVID-19 on September 30, 2020 . Michael Mina, Roy Parker, and Daniel Barrymore believe it is time to think again how we COVID-19 test. They say the current method is too slow and expensive. And it is not reaching the volume of population we need. We include a link to their report in New England Journal of Medicine at the end of our post.
Why It Is Time to Think Again How We COVID-19 Test
Mina, Parker, and Barrymore believe we are focusing too much on test sensitivity. In other words, how well a test detects viral protein or RNA molecules, indicating infection. They are concerned the process overlooks the context in which the test is taking place.
And moreover, the results may take too long to materialize in time to prevent spread. Therefore, they reason we should shift our attention from test sensitivity, to the ability of the process to prevent spread. They envisage doing so by temporarily filtering infected people out the population faster, and isolating them sooner.
It is time to think again how we COVID-19 test they say. We need a point-of-care test that is sufficiently inexpensive to use frequently, even if it is not as accurate.
A New Way of Doing Things by Mina, Parker, and Barrymore
The three highly respected American scientists would like a different approach, in parallel to clinical tests of symptomatic people. They say these require high sensitivity to accurately diagnose the subject during a single opportunity. And therefore they are expensive.
They would like to see cheaper, alternative tests that produce results faster for mass sampling the general population. That’s because quick results would help health workers work smarter during the early days after exposure, when the viral load peaks.
Michael Mina, Roy Parker, and Daniel Barrymore believe it is time to think again how we COVID-19 test. We need something more efficient they say. Something we could do at home, and detect more infections at the height of their contagion.
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