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Michael Mina Profile picture
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26 Dec, 4 tweets, 2 min read
Need rapid tests for travel or treatment or New Years or... but can't find them?

@eMedCertified allocated 1,000,000 for individuals to be able to obtain. Note, these are a proctored version that enable a lab result for travel & public health reporting

prnewswire.com/news-releases/…
Please note, I am now the Chief Science Officer of eMed.

I try to stay away from using this important platform for anything except informing on public health and science. However, I also will post when there is a good reason to about the company I am now CSO of.
Also, please note, eMed is NOT a test manufacturer but a live proctoring software company to authenticate and validate tests.

If you purchase tests via eMed (can also get them through Optum store I believe) what you are purchasing is live person proctoring - tests come with it
This is why tests via eMed are not free. It's not the tests that eMed is providing. It's the live proctoring service/lab report for downstream action if you need that

I am still and will keep pushing as hard as a person possibly can for everyone to be able to get free tests.

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More from @michaelmina_lab

Michael Mina Profile picture
27 Dec
CDC’s new guidance to drop isolation of positives to 5 days without a negative test is reckless

Some ppl stay infectious 3 days,Some 12

I absolutely don’t want to sit next to someone who turned Pos 5 days ago and hasnt tested Neg

Test Neg to leave isolation early is just smart
I am 100% for getting people to drop isolation early.

Heck, I formally recommended it to CDC in May 2020 and Published the recommendation in J of Clin Infectious Diseases in April 2020.

But it was always with a negative test.

What the heck are we doing here?

2/
This is the part that hurts the most. The reason they are doing this:

"The change is motivated by science demonstrating... SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs... generally in the 1-2 days prior to onset of symptoms and the 2-3 days after"

That was BEFORE OMICRON.

3/
Read 10 tweets
Michael Mina Profile picture
24 Dec
The Solution

We need a new Pathway for Authorization at FDA

There are 3 primary bottlenecks in getting rapid tests authorized at FDA

None make sense biologically & remain for seemingly no reason but sheer stubbornness of FDA to not recognize this PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY
🧵
1/
1) We do not allow much better data already collected in Europe to be used for immediate EUA of the very best tests in use by millions in Europe.

But We should! - many of them are better than most of ours available in the US

Could increase tests by 100’s of millions in days

2/
2) FDA requires Rapid Ag tests compared to entirely different technology, w entirely different analyte that diminishes in a very different time scale.

This causes MASSIVE slow downs and hurdles with clinical trials for EUA

Compare rapid tests to a gold standard rapid test!!

3/
Read 7 tweets
Michael Mina Profile picture
23 Dec
This article captures so well the difficulty, persistence and personal toll it’s taken to help the US (and elsewhere) have the crucial tools we all need to keep society going through this pandemic.

Thank you
@BostonGlobe @hannaskrueger

1/
bos.gl/aA6bkfK
I can’t say I succeeded. If I had, we wouldn’t have long lines and empty shelves. I truly did everything possible and imaginable to me to try to ensure we didn’t end up right here, right now. Blind in the face of a much more infectious virus that is sweeping the globe.

2
A year ago, @hannaskrueger profiled a series of epidemiologists & public health leaders. That, in my view, was a remarkable portrayal of just how difficult the virus had been on many front line workers.

I wish I could say it got better. But 2021 was immensely more difficult

3/
Read 4 tweets
Michael Mina Profile picture
22 Dec
At what point did the science of rapid tests get lost??

FREQUENCY • ACCESSIBILITY • SPEED are most important aspects of a test for public health

Talking about tests not detecting in the 1st 24 hours of contagiousness assumes people are testing in those hours. Most don’t.

1/
Most of the time that someone is contagious is not spent in the first 24 hrs of being contagious. Obviously.

Frequent rapid testing for public health has always been about the sensitivity and EFFECTIVENESS of the testing REGIMEN.

2/
If a test fails to turn pos on d 1 but someone wasn’t using the test that day, then it doesn’t matter

It’s MORE likely ppl use a test sometime in days 2,3,4,5,6 or 7 than day 1. Public health testing also must consider the days it DOES detect - not just the days it doesn’t.

3/
Read 6 tweets
Michael Mina Profile picture
22 Dec
Here’s a frustrating secret

Today - in midst of Omicron - millions of Americans are begging for access to rapid tests, thousands dying daily.

Get this:

many manufacturers with very high quality rapid tests are begging To ship 100’s of millions of tests to US

But can’t.

1/
These are some of the largest companies in the world that make diagnostic tests.

Their rapid tests have been used the world around in this pandemic with research paper after research paper showing their benefit and quality.

But FDA has them in a holding pattern for months

2/
Why?

Bc despite tremendous amount of data from real world use in millions of ppl - FDA demands the companies check off onerous but remarkably useless check boxes designed for evaluating medical devices.

FDA formally does not recognize that public health testing exists

3/
Read 14 tweets
Michael Mina Profile picture
22 Dec
🧵

Think rapid tests don’t work w Omicron?

In last few days almost everyone I know diagnosed, found out on rapid test & same for MANY MANY others:

PCR test one day - negative.

But then used rapid test day after - BC THEY WERE EASY & ACCESSIBLE & FAST -

Positive

1/
This has never ever been about how good is a single test. Ever.

That ship sailed in Feb 2020 in my view. It’s not about the individual test

I don’t know how to be any clearer

It’s about the testing regimen!

Test once, test again, etc You don’t know when you are infected

2/
A single PCR will not help if it’s a one time thing - Even if weekly. Negative today -positive tomorrow and don’t know it

It is why we published in early 2020 about how we need to focus on serial testing over multiple days

This isn’t a static state

3/
science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…
Read 9 tweets

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