White House coronavirus coordinator reveals 'breakthrough' which US requires
Coronavirus in USA
The White House coronavirus response coordinator,Dr. Deborah Birx, has revealed a"breakthrough"which US needs in orderto screen large numbers of people.
As perBirx, thisbreakthrough is antigen testing which is often used to check for the flu and strep.
The human body recognizes andresponds toantigens. The antibodies produced by their bodiesdefend them against intruders such as antigens.
Antigen tests look for pieces of a virus which are usually the proteins that cover its surface.
Itdiffers from a majority ofCovid-19 tests, which look for the genetic material of the virus and require a number of chemicals to operate, many of which are in short supply.
According to the USCenters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), antigen tests are simpler and they can provide results in as little as 15 minutes.
However, major limitations of the test arethat itcan also take hours to run, it is potentially less reliable, they're not easy to make, and validating their accuracy can be time-consuming and expensive. Theydid not have a big market beforenow.
Antigen tests are tailored to the 3D structure of the targeted virus, which is more nebulous than a neat, orderly genetic code. Making a test that comes back positive for the novel coronavirus and negative for everything else is extremely difficult.