We need rapid COVID screening if we want to get back to normal
Many hospitals like this one in Alberta, Canada, have set up screening checkpoints for COVID-19. Other facilities can do the same. (Graham Ruttan/Unsplash/)Zoë McLaren is an associate professor of public policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. This story originally featured on The Conversation.Broad access to testing is one of the most powerful tools to keep the COVID-19 pandemic under control until there’s an effective vaccine in use. Diagnostic testing, which is used in medical settings to determine whether someone is infected with the coronavirus, is costly, slow and overstretched in the US. But that’s not the only type of test that can be used.I study public health policy to combat infectious disease epidemics. To slow the spread of the virus, public health programs need to catch more COVID-19 cases and catch them before they spread. Innovative screening tests offer promise because they are inexpensive, rapid, easily mass produced...