Testing

Trump Administration Coronavirus Testing Strategy Draws Concerns: ‘This Isn’t the Hunger Games’

By Kristie J. Fields 2 days ago

The Trump administration’s new testing strategy, released Sunday to Congress, holds individual states responsible for planning and carrying out all coronavirus testing, while planning to provide some supplies needed for the tests.

The proposal also says existing testing capacity, if properly targeted, is sufficient to contain the outbreak. But epidemiologists say that amount of testing is orders of magnitude lower than many of them believe the country needs.

“For months, it was a tennis game, it was going back and forth between the feds and the states, and it’s now landed with the states,” said Scott Becker, executive director of the Association of Public Health Laboratories.

Mr. Becker noted that the

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Coronavirus Testing Used by the White House Could Miss Infections

By Kristie J. Fields 2 weeks ago

A rapid coronavirus test used by the White House to screen its staff could miss infections up to 48 percent of the time, according to a study by researchers at N.Y.U. Langone Health.

The study, which has not yet been peer reviewed, evaluated the accuracy of the test, Abbott ID Now, a machine about the size of a toaster oven that can yield results in five to 13 minutes.

The product, which was given emergency authorization by the Food and Drug Administration in late March, has been enthusiastically promoted by President Trump — it was even used as a prop during at least one news conference. Mr. Trump has said the tests are “highly accurate.”

A White House spokesman did not immediately respond for comment.

There are 18,000 ID Now testing units in the United States, and the company says it has shipped 1.8 million of the kits required

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F.D.A. Paves Way for Home Testing of Coronavirus

By Kristie J. Fields 3 weeks ago

In a move that could significantly expand the nation’s testing capacity, the Food and Drug Administration has posted new guidelines that could pave the way for millions of people to test themselves for the coronavirus at home.

The guidelines allow companies to develop and market testing kits with the tools to swab their noses and mail the specimens to any lab in the country.

Access to tests has been improving, but nationwide testing shortages continue to hamper the ability of health authorities to identify and isolate people who are infected.

The F.D.A. said it hoped the new guidelines, posted on its site on Wednesday

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C.D.C. Labs Were Contaminated, Delaying Coronavirus Testing, Officials Say

By Kristie J. Fields 1 month ago

Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the director of the C.D.C., and other health experts have long suggested that contamination in the labs might have been the culprit. But even as several officials at the F.D.A. late this week cited contamination as the cause, a spokesman for the C.D.C., Benjamin Haynes, asserted that it was still just a possibility and that the agency was still awaiting the formal findings of H.H.S.

In a statement, however, he acknowledged that the agency’s quality control measures were insufficient during the coronavirus test development. Since then, he said, “C.D.C. implemented enhanced quality control to address the issue and will be assessing the issue moving forward.”

Initially, the C.D.C. was responsible for creating a coronavirus test that state and local public health agencies could use to diagnose Covid-19 in people, and then isolate them to prevent the spread of the disease.

“It was just tragic,” said Scott

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