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Rapid coronavirus tests: a guide for the perplexed

Scientists still debate whether millions of cheap, fast diagnostic kits will help control the pandemic. Here’s why.
  1. Giorgia Guglielmi

    1. Giorgia Guglielmi is a science journalist in Basel, Switzerland.

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A health worker carries out a COVID-19 test on a small device as another worker takes a nasal swab from a student in France

Health workers carry out mass screening using rapid antigen tests at a school in France. Credit: Thomas Samson/AFP/Getty

As the number of UK coronavirus cases surged in early 2021, the government announced a potential game-changer in the fight against COVID-19: millions of cheap, rapid virus tests. On 10 January, it said it would roll these tests out across the country, to be taken by people even if they have no symptoms. Similar tests will play a crucial part in US President Joe Biden’s plans to tame the raging outbreak in the United States.

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Nature 590, 202-205 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00332-4

References

  1. Peto, T. et al. Preprint at medRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.13.21249563 (2021).

  2. Pilarowski, G. et al. Clin. Infect. Dis. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaa1890 (2020).

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  4. Lindner, A. K. et al. Preprint at medRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.06.20249009 (2021).

  5. Pavelka, M. et al. Preprint at https://cmmid.github.io/topics/covid19/Slovakia.html (2020).

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