It’s time to change how we think about the sensitivity of testing for Covid-19. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the scientific community are currently almost exclusively focused on test sensitivity, a measure of how well an individual assay can detect viral protein or RNA molecules. Critically, this measure neglects the context of how… Continue reading The New England Journal of Medicine: Rethinking Covid-19 Test Sensitivity — A Strategy for Containment

The use of rapid lateral flow antigen testing (LFT) for SARS-CoV-2 has been questioned1, 2, 3 with uncorroborated4 reports of poor LFT sensitivity. The debate surrounding the use of the Innova Lateral Flow SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Test in the UK risks confusing policy makers internationally and potentially stalling deployment of LFTs in other countries.5 As scientists and health professionals evaluating some… Continue reading The Lancet: Clarifying the evidence on SARS-CoV-2 antigen rapid tests in public health responses to COVID-19

Many types of tests are available for COVID-19 for clinical and public health use (see the figure). Testing can be performed in a central laboratory, at the point of care (POC), or in the community at the workplace, school, or home. COVID-19 testing begins with specimen collection. For medical use, a nasopharyngeal swab collected by… Continue reading Science: COVID-19 testing: One size does not fit all

Abstract A pilot study was performed to investigate whether the application of a new mechanical ventilation system with a fine F8 (MERV14) filter could improve indoor air quality in a high school near the Amsterdam ring road. PM10, PM2.5, and black carbon (BC) concentrations were measured continuously inside an occupied intervention classroom and outside the… Continue reading Wiley Online: The impact of particle filtration on indoor air quality in a classroom near a highway

This article presents the measurements of indoor climate in classrooms in the same school in Denmark. The classrooms had different ventilation systems: Ventilation was achieved either by manually operable windows, or by automatically operable windows with and without an exhaust fan in operation, or by a balanced mechanical ventilation system. Indoor air temperature and carbon… Continue reading REHVA: Indoor Air Quality and Thermal Environment in Classrooms with Different Ventilation Systems

A large study of children and young people who caught SARS-CoV-2 has found that as many as one in seven (14%) may still have symptoms 15 weeks later.1 However, this figure is lower than in some studies that have reported a prevalence of long covid as high as 51% in children and young people. Speaking at… Continue reading The BMJ: Long covid: One in seven children may still have symptoms 15 weeks after infection, data show

Ten streams of evidence collectively support the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted primarily by the airborne route.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed major gaps in our understanding of the transmission of viruses through the air. These gaps slowed recognition of airborne transmission of the disease, contributed to muddled public health policies and impeded clear messaging on how best to slow transmission of COVID-19.

Wang et al. review recent advances in understanding airborne transmission gained from studying the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections and other respiratory pathogens. The authors suggest that airborne transmission may be the dominant form of transmission for several respiratory pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2, and that further understanding of the mechanisms underlying infection… Continue reading Science: Airborne Transmission of Respiratory Viruses