More testing with rapid results needed to beat COVID-19

Almost overnight, a large number of Americans realize the need to receive fast results for diagnostic tests. When a case of novel coronavirus is suspected, the sooner someone gets test results, and the quicker treatment and quarantine begins, the lower the risk of infecting others becomes.

In this unprecedented global public health crisis, every hour matters when it comes to preventing COVID-19 infection. That is why federal policymakers must do everything in their power to expand access to rapid diagnostic tests. 

In recent weeks, health workers at the University of California San Francisco hospital have performed more than 2,900 COVID-19 laboratory-developed tests (LDTs), which can turn around results in less than six hours for inpatients and high-risk outpatients. Experts at the University of Virginia and the University of Washington have created similar rapid testing capabilities. 

While our nation’s overall COVID-19 testing capacity remains tremendously inadequate, the situation would be far worse without LDTs, which make up a significant portion of our capacity and provide some of the most rapid results. Laboratories across the country have taken advantage of expanded emergency use authorization to rapidly develop lifesaving tests.

LDTs are developed by trained academics and medical professionals, and they allow for fast decision-making that helps protect people from COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.

These tests support our nation’s public health in the age of the novel coronavirus by giving patients clarity about whether they are infected. More and faster testing helps make decisions about hospitalization, contact tracing, social distancing and other measures to reduce the risk of community transmission.

Given the numerous benefits of LDTs during both public health crises and for routine medical care, it is imperative that oversight of these important tests not harm the ability of academic clinical labs to develop them, especially during a health emergency. 

In the weeks leading up to the escalation of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Verifying Accurate and Leading-edge IVCT Development (VALID) Act was introduced in Congress.

While the bipartisan sponsors of the bill have been open and transparent with the stakeholder community in developing the measure, we must consider the important role such tests are playing in our current response to COVID-19 and ensure that we do not weaken America’s testing capacity for future outbreaks and for infectious diseases that threaten patients every day. 

The current crisis has given us the unfortunate opportunity to utilize these tests broadly. This real-world experience has demonstrated that rapid diagnostics must be widely available in the future.

We urge the sponsors of the VALID Act to continue to work with the experts in the field to ensure that people do not wait longer for test results, risking their health and in the case of infections such as COVID-19 increasing community spread at the worst possible time. 

Infectious disease pathogens can evolve fast and tests often require frequent updates. New LDTs need to be developed and deployed rapidly when novel infectious diseases, like COVID-19, emerge. 

One of the most crucial lessons we can learn from COVID-19 is the critical importance of access to rapid, point-of-care testing for infectious diseases.

Policymakers and public health experts should look to nations who demonstrated that mass testing can slow the spread of COVID-19, and aim to build testing capacity for this and future outbreaks.

It is critical that we do not erect barriers to rapid, well-validated infectious diseases LDTs. We stand ready to work with Congress to ensure that patients receive accurate and reliable tests while achieving our shared goals of keeping Americans safe. 

Chaz Langelier, M.D., Ph.D. is an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Associate Medical Director of Hospital Epidemiology & Infection Prevention at the University of California, San Francisco.

Francesca Lee, M.D., is an associate professor of pathology and internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and a member of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) Diagnostics Committee.