A Chicago dad develops a screening program for coronavirus in son's school.
Ed Campbell is an immunologist who adopted a COVID-19 testing program that he designed to be used in his son's school district.
In an interview by Scott Simon in the Weekend Edition Saturday of NPR, the Chicago dad shares more about the testing for the coronavirus.
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The development of the program
Campbell is a professor at Loyola University Chicago. He teaches microbiology and immunology.
In the development of the program, Campbell collaborated with some of his colleagues from the University of Wisconsin.
During the Chicago dad's course of study, he learned that two other professors, David O'Connor, and Shelby O'Connor, were also working on the same research that he has. The study is about looking for a way to open schools safely in the fall.
How does the screening program works?
The testing program for the coronavirus is saliva-based.
What happens is that students or teacher participants spit into a small tube. These specimens are brought to the designated facility for the study.
The testing facility being used for the screening program is the science center in the Chicago school district. This facility was converted into the examination testing area since the science center cannot fulfill its role this year, while the new normal.
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The difference between the Chicago dad's screening program and the nasal swab tests
The results of the program does not surely show that a child or teacher has the coronavirus. According to Campbell, "So it's certainly fair to say that it's not as sensitive as a PCR-based test, but the argument is being made that, really, speed and cost are the factors that we want to think about more for surveillance testing."
However, Campbell claims that the collection rule of the specimen in the screening process is easier. That is because a participant would only need to spit saliva in a small test tube. Campbell adds, "Those Q-tips can cause quite a bit of irritation when they're used in a consistent way like that."
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The Chicago dad's advice to other parents
Campbell strongly believes that having a testing program is only as important as the other layers of infection mitigation.
According to Campbell, still, some of the most important precautionary measures that parents should implement are good hand hygiene, physical distancing, and a lot more.
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