Toolkit: Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3

This toolkit episode is all about testing with Michael Mina, Harvard infectious disease specialist and laboratory director, and Robby Sikka, who helped develop the SalivaDirect test with the NBA in partnership with Yale University. Andy asks these experts your email and voicemail questions about the new wave of tests on the horizon, their reliability, how they work, when to get tested, plus some potential new creative at-home tests.  What would you name an at-home sewage test? Tell Andy on Twitter!

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Follow Michael Mina @michaelmina_lab and Robby Sikka @robbysikka on Twitter.

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Check out these resources from today’s episode: 

• Here’s the article about saliva-based testing from the New England Journal of Medicine Dr. Sikka mentions in the episode: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2016359 
• Learn more about the SalivaDirect test here: https://salivadirect.org/ 
• Read the CDC’s answers to frequently asked questions about wastewater surveillance for COVID-19: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/wastewater-surveillance.html 
• Check out this article from The New York Times that provides a more skeptical look at daily, at-home COVID-19 testing: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/06/health/coronavirus-rapid-test.html. 
• Listen to a recent press conference from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health with Michael Mina: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/coronavirus-covid-19-press-conference-with-michael-mina-09-04-20/ 

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