Thursday, April 9, 2020

Trump Admin Expects To Roll Out ‘Millions’ Of Antibody Tests to Help Reopen Country



The models from the IHME are being revised down yet again. Dr. Anthony Fauci is saying beyond this week we’re beginning to see the turnaround. The CDC decided to let up some of the restrictions and have allowed some essential workers to go back to work, with an eye toward figuring out how to best open it for the general public.

Now comes the thought as to how they may be able to help that cause, through tens of millions of antibody tests. Antibody tests will determine if you have been exposed to the disease and are now presumably immune. 
U.S. officials anticipate being able to conduct tens of millions of tests starting next month to determine how many Americans have been infected with coronavirus without knowing it, a step that experts say is crucial to reopening the economy.
“If things work out the way we believe they will, we will have millions on the market by May in a sophisticated way, in a prospective way that we get the surveillance we need,” Adm. Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary of Health and Human Services said Monday at a White House coronavirus task force briefing.
“We can test people to see if they’ve been exposed, are immune, and can go back to work.”

Giroir said this allowed them to tell how many people had been infected and tens of millions can be screened with a “finger prick on the spot.”

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who served as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration under President Trump, has argued that widespread antibody testing has to be part of the coronavirus strategy in order to return to normalcy.
“This is essential for tailoring interventions to stop local spread,” Gottlieb wrote of the screening in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on March 29.
“If you know that a large percentage of people have been exposed and developed some immunity, it may allow for less-restrictive measures.”

Here’s FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn explaining the idea in greater detail on April 2. He explains how they just approved a test and they may approve other tests. 




Sounds desperately needed to start getting back to normality.

The problem is the longer it takes to get the tests together, the more of a hit the economy will take. So the faster they can get them in gear and online the better it’s going to be all around.

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