So we missed uploading week 25 of our COVID-19 Update last week, so this week, we’ve uploaded week 25 and week 26.

Week 25

In the week 25 episode Fred digs into a pre published paper:

Long, thin transmission chains of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) may go undetected for several weeks at low to moderate reproductive numbers: Implications for containment and elimination strategy

And the implications for contact tracing that needs to be done quickly and testing that also needs to be done quickly

And we compare experiences on face coverings – with Baltimore showing how it can be done with everyone from the homeless and pan handlers on up, compared to Florida and Fred’s experience in a RaceTrac where no-one was wearing a mask of the roughly 20 people in the store and of the employees that were, none were wearing their face coverings properly or at all.

Week 26

Testing Options and How to Apply Them

The webinar Roadmap to Safely Reopening: Evaluate Rapid Testing and Gain Strategies to Move Forward from St. Edward’s University, Other Academic Institutions, and Businesses put on by the Validation Institute with St Edwards University generated a host of questions we did not have time to answer so we cover some of these questions this week.

We review the available testing options for COVID19 and break down the Diagnostic Test – do I have COVID19 or that detect either the DNA or RNA (aka Molecular test or RT-PCR) in the virus or look for the protein envelope that surrounds the virus (aka Antigen test) and the Antibody test (have I had the disease) and talk about the Rapid Antigen test recently announced by Abbott.

Fred talks through how to apply testing in the context of colleges and businesses, how often you test and how you use this to shrink the funnel of risk in your setting