Radical shift in COVID-19 testing needed to reopen schools and businesses, researchers say

Science's COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Heising-Simons Foundation. Even as the United States ramped up coronavirus testing from about 100,000 per week in mid-March to more than 5 million per week in late July, the country fell further behind in stemming the spread of the virus.

In this science magazine article, author Robert Service calls for a radical shift in testing strategy: away from diagnosing people who have symptoms or were exposed and toward screening whole populations using faster, cheaper, sometimes less accurate tests. According to diagnostics experts, public health officials, and epidemiologists, this shift would make it possible to quickly identify and isolate infected individuals, and thus slow the spread of the virus. If the virus successfully slowed, schools, factories, and businesses would be able to safely reopen. Check the whole article out to learn more about antigen testing and the costs associated with this alternative approach to testing.