At ASM Microbe, White House’s Deborah Birx Urges COVID-19 Test Pooling and Community Outreach

In a keynote address to begin a virtual American Society for Microbiology Microbe conference on Monday, Deborah Birx, the response coordinator for the White House coronavirus task force, urged labs to expand SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic testing in the US through sample pooling and community engagement.

Expanding testing through pooling could enable more frequent testing, and a surveillance strategy could, in turn, allow people to more safely return to schools and work, Birx suggested.

Improved pool testing methods have recently been described, and the US Food and Drug Administration offered new guidance on the technique last week, but Birx suggested that the method needs to be vetted for each different COVID-19 test and platform. 

Source: https://www.360dx.com/pcr/asm-microbe-white-houses-deborah-birx-urges-covid-19-test-pooling-and-community-outreach