{"id":52,"date":"2020-10-31T21:06:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-31T21:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/?p=52"},"modified":"2020-11-08T21:16:04","modified_gmt":"2020-11-08T21:16:04","slug":"can-rapid-tests-get-schools-reopened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/?p=52","title":{"rendered":"Can rapid tests get schools reopened?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Question:<\/strong> Doesn\u2019t it seem like cheap, rapid testing is the best approach to getting kids back to school, and people back to offices and public events? It doesn\u2019t have to be perfect, just good enough to identify most positive cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Answer:<\/strong> I agree that cheap, rapid testing is a key component of pandemic response, including for helping us return to work and school. As an intervention, however, it\u2019s not sufficient. Rapid testing must be used alongside other public health measures, including masking and distancing, and in the case of school, podding. Last week, JAMA<\/em> published an overview of the benefits and limitations of rapid testing, The Challenges of Expanding Rapid Tests to Curb COVID-19<\/a>, which nicely lays out the pros and cons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Pros include:<\/span><\/p>

-Quick turn-around;<\/p>

-Inexpensive (the aim is to have DIY tests for ~$1\/test); and<\/p>

-Identification of far more cases, especially those who are pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic.<\/p>

Cons include:<\/span><\/p>

-No DIY option yet (still need a health provider to give you the nasal swab and read results);<\/p>

-Risk of false negative (discussed most recently in\u00a0Q&A of 10\/22<\/a>\u00a0#Testing; additionally, most currently available rapid tests have not been evaluated specifically for performance in children or people who do not have symptoms);<\/p>

-Potential for over-reliance on testing (for example, see CDC\u2019s latest\u00a0MMWR,\u00a0<\/em>\u201cOutbreak at an Overnight Summer School Retreat<\/a>\u201d where testing was used to admit summer campers, no other public health measures were followed, and a huge outbreak occurred); and<\/p>

-Human behavior is difficult to change (will people regularly self-test? correctly self-report?).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy issued a report earlier this month, \u201cRisk assessment and testing protocols for reducing SARS-Cov-2 transmission in schools<\/a>,\u201d which offers helpful guidance to schools based on different levels of community transmission and risk. As stated in the\u00a0JAMA<\/em>\u00a0overview, \u201cTo assess the approach described in the report, The Rockefeller Foundation signed a\u00a0memorandum of understanding<\/a>\u00a0with HHS, which is sending at least 120 000 Abbott BinaxNOW tests to 5 pilot areas: Louisville, Kentucky; Los Angeles; New Orleans; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Rhode Island.\u201d It will be fascinating to learn the results of these pilot tests to understand how rapid testing can help schools open and remain open.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question: Doesn\u2019t it seem like cheap, rapid testing is the best approach to getting kids back to school, and people back to offices and public events? It doesn\u2019t have to be perfect, just good enough to identify most positive cases. Answer: I agree that cheap, rapid testing is a key component of pandemic response, including for helping […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13,6],"tags":[27,14],"class_list":["post-52","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-school","category-testing","tag-rapid-tests","tag-reopening","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covidqanda.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/October-31.png?fit=810%2C537&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions\/54"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/53"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}