A coronavirus testing program that was backed by billionaire and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is now halted as a response to the United States Food and Drug Administration's (US FDA) command. On Friday, May 15, the US FDA sent a memo to Seattle Coronavirus Assessment Network (SCAN) to pause all their testings "until proper authorization is obtained." A health expert calls this move "bizarre," especially now that everyone needs rapid mass testing.
Bill Gates' at-home COVID-19 testing now paused! Here's why
On Tuesday, May 12, Bill Gates introduced a Coronavirus program that allows people to test for the viral disease even when at-home. The program is called SCAN that targets to test Americans in the Seattle area-- wherein the first outbreak began in the country.
"More testing, of course, will help us answer them. But with tests in short supply in many parts of the world, including the U.S., it is impossible to test everyone-at least for now," the Microsoft co-founder wrote in a blog post on Tuesday, explaining the idea behind the program.
Unfortunately, after only a few days, the US FDA issued a halted response on the at-home testing process and said that SCAN needs to stop all operations due to a lack of additional authorization from the government.
"Please discontinue patient testing and return of diagnostic results to patients until proper authorization is obtained," the F.D.A. wrote in a memo.
SCAN had already commented on the issue and complied with what the F.D.A. wanted. They said that they were in talks with the federal agency about 10 weeks ago and already submitted the necessary data last month. SCAN said that they are currently "actively working to address their (F.D.A.) questions."
What SCAN does and why it was prohibited
America already has millions of cases and thousands of deaths since the disease's first outbreak. Worse, the Harvard Global Health Institute reported that there is still a huge need for more COVID-19 testing with an estimated number of at least 900,000 tests daily.
The Seattle program is aimed to test both healthy and sick people in residence. Gates clarified that it is not created to replace the proper medical test made by the government or to test all the people in a state.
However, with the help of SCAN, the demographics would be obtained easily since info like age, gender, and pre-existing health conditions would be quickly submitted to testing.
Still, FDA said that home collection kits might be dangerous for most people. They categorized two kinds of testing, surveillance and diagnostic. SCAN was said to be under the surveillance group wherein testing would be made, and the test results will be sent to the person.
But it looks like FDA doesn't want this to happen.
Health expert thinks it is bizarre'
Dr. Eric Topol, the director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, who is not involved in the SCAN, told the New York Times that the move of FDA was simply 'bizarre.'
"Home testing is really the only way we can get massive testing in the United States," he said. "To withhold that information from people is downright absurd," Dr. Topol said, referring to the classification of 'surveillance' testing.
