Serological Testing & Smarter Public Health Strategies to Combat COVID-19

Public Health Perspectives

Drs. John Marr and Lloyd Novick continue their conversation on COVID-19, this time discussing serological testing for COVID-19 virus as a component of a smarter public health strategy, a strategy that has been suggested by Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York. As Dr. Novick notes in the following podcast, the New York State Wadsworth Public Health Laboratory has excellent past experience with performing mass serological testing for HIV in the newborn and other at-risk populations. Two articles by Dr. Novick et al describe how in a 21/2-year-period HIV serological testing was done for more than 650,000 specimens on newborns. This is a marked underestimate of capacity since serological testing at that time included other groups including those attending sexually transmitted disease clinics and family planning clinics. This experience shows that with a concerted effort large-scale testing of the population is possible.