A Cheap, Simple Way to Control the Coronavirus

With easy-to-use tests, everyone can check themselves every day.

By Laurence J. Kotlikoff and Michael Mina

Mr. Kotlikoff is a professor of economics at Boston University and Dr. Mina is an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

• July 3, 2020, The New York Times

One of the new at-home paper-strip tests for the coronavirus, licensed from the Wyss Institute at Harvard, that is being developed by Sherlock Biosciences.Credit...Wyss Institute at Harvard University

Simple at-home tests for the coronavirus, some that involve spitting into a small tube of solution, could be the key to expanding testing and impeding the spread of the pandemic. The Food and Drug Administration should encourage their development and then fast track approval.

One variety, paper-strip tests, are inexpensive and easy enough to make that Americans could test themselves every day. You would simply spit into a tube of saline solution and insert a small piece of paper embedded with a strip of protein. If you are infected with enough of the virus, the strip will change color within 15 minutes.

Click here to see the entire article in The New York Times