PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Biden administration is investing $1 billion in rapid COVID-19 tests.
An outspoken advocate of those tests calls that plan to produce 200 million tests over the next year a step in the right direction, but not enough.
Harvard epidemiologist Michael Mina said more needs to be done to get easy-to-use, cheap tests into the hands of all Americans.
“Not having access to a test during a pandemic like this is, I think, really massively detrimental," he said.
“It still means that it's less than six tests per year per American, even at that rate.”
Mina has been pushing for the tests for more than a year. He said the test could have limited or prevented not only the spread of the virus but also quarantines, closures, and other mitigation steps.
Mina said if everyone had easy and, especially, inexpensive access to tests that are already being used in other countries, some of the more burdensome mitigation steps could be avoided. Those steps could include quarantining a child because a classmate tested positive.
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“Quarantining somebody, because they are potentially exposed to somebody especially in the school systems, is purely an information problem," he said.
“Instead of quarantining, use your test in the morning. If you're negative, go to school. If you're positive, don't go to school. It's that simple.”
He blames the rapid test bottleneck on the way the tests are approved, saying they are needlessly compared to PCR tests.
“Does it detect infectiousness? Is it specific for people who are infectious, so that we're not isolating people who are no longer infectious?” Mina suggested as questions regulators should be asking.
“In reality, you’re only positive on a rapid test for about 30% of the time you’re positive on a PCR test, and that’s because you’re only infectious for about 30% of the time you’re PCR positive.”
Put more simply, rapid tests are incredibly effective at telling you if you are spreading the virus to other people.
Mina said that because of the public health value, the tests should be free to users, similar to vaccines.
