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Rep. Schrier Hosts Congressional Briefing on Rapid, Inexpensive COVID-19 Testing Technology

December 11, 2020

ISSAQUAH, WA – Congresswoman Kim Schrier, M.D. (WA-08) recently hosted a briefing for her colleagues in the New Democrat Coalition with Dr. Michael Mina, of the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, on rapid, low-cost COVID-19 tests intended for frequent at-home use. This is a way to catch asymptomatic people before they can spread the virus to others. The test measures whether a person is contagious by testing for the presence of the virus in their nose.

"Even with a vaccine on the way, it will be months before we will be able to return to our normal lives," said Rep. Schrier. "Too many people are waiting days or over a week for test results. Not just that … if we don't test people until they are symptomatic, and then get results back 24 – 48 hours later, we have already missed most of the time frame when they are most contagious to others. That is too late to stop the spread and makes contact tracing very challenging. We need more solutions. People need to know, on any given day, whether they are contagious to others. This type of test is a critically important tool that is not yet being deployed at scale in this country."

These rapid paper-strip tests are a public health tool that, if scaled properly, can help people make informed choices and prevent outbreaks.

"If we could get buy in from 50% of a community or 50% of households to use this test twice a week, we could significantly reduce the spread of the virus in 3-4 weeks. The goal is to meet infectious people where they are at (at home) and provide them with a reliable, quick test so they can know if they are safe to roam the world. If we can get these tests out to enough people in the community then we can achieve herd effects- where the cases stop growing and start falling, with fewer outbreaks," added Dr. Mina.

Stopping outbreaks and community spread will put us on a faster path to normalcy, allowing us to quickly and safely keep schools and the rest of our economy open. Rep. Schrier is looking for pathways to get these tests into all of our homes as soon as possible.

Rep. Schrier continued, "I hear from parents who want their children back in school. We all do! Imagine if you could test your child at home, find out whether he is contagious that day, and keep him home if he is. Imagine if every parent tested their children. Schools would become the safest places in the country. And if even half of the rest of us tested ourselves and took ourselves out of businesses, work, and restaurants when infectious, we could essentially starve the virus. Stopping the spread is possible."

If given the green light to scale-up, these inexpensive, rapid, accurate in-home tests could significantly reduce wide community spread of COVID-19 in a matter of weeks.

Rep. Schrier and several colleagues sent a letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) earlier this year asking for expedited approval of these public health tests. That letter can be found here.