A Message from the CMO: Access to Accurate, Wide-Scale COVID-19 Testing
Our VP of Government Affairs, Andie Patterson, and I are members of the Governor’s Covid Testing Taskforce. We meet weekly with a broad group of stakeholders from around California. The Taskforce is led by California Department of Public Health’s infectious disease and immunization leaders. The Taskforce has clear goals, based on achieving universal accessibility to accurate and wide-scale testing for the Covid-19 virus. This is a critical step to the eventual goal of working our way through and, finally, free from, this Covid-19 pandemic.
CPCA's role on the taskforce ensures that CHCs are getting the most up to date information from the state on the evolving testing landscape as well as to advocate for what CHCs need- PPE, testing supplies, faster lab result turn around, financial support to reach further into the community. CPCA, due to our involvement in the Testing TF and the vital role that CHCs play, is also engaged in conversations directly with the Administration to create a hub and spoke model for the new state lab. The state understands and appreciates the vast network of community health centers and wants to leverage the network and the CHCs’ trusted status in communities in the Central Valley to expand testing. To date the conversations have not led to a formula contract but discussions continue. CPCA will continue to advocate for fast, reliable and effective testing to ensure all of our 7.2 million patients have the support they need.
The “molecular PCR antibody Covid test” has been the standard test for Covid-19 to-date. It is highly accurate, but has had to be sent to outside laboratories, and has at times taken so long to get results (up to 7 to 10 days) as to be not at all helpful. With this in mind, many laboratories are working to develop a “gold standard” test, meeting the following criteria:
This test would:
Give rapid results (in minutes, to one to two hours),
Have the ability to be done at home,
Importantly, require reporting to the Health Department as: “done”, and “positive” or “negative”--, in order to identify “hot spots” and geographic and demographic trends of the infection,
Be sensitive* and specific* enough to give reliable information to both the individual doing the test—as well as to the “greater community” (see this rationale in #3),
[ *”sensitive” refers to the % accuracy of tests when the result is positive,
* “specific” refers to the % accuracy of tests when the result is negative,
Ideally, these %’s should both be ≥95%]
Be covered by insurance, or be free or affordable for everyone.
With these criteria in mind, many labs around the world have new Covid tests in development. As a current example, this article, from the NY Times, reports on an intriguing new rapid test which may have many of these characteristics, from Lucira, a California laboratory.
Does this article meet these criteria? (Other new tests will require this kind of evaluation too.)
I would appreciate hearing your thoughts.
Mike
mwitte@cpca.org