Abstract: This Discussion Board post discusses an article by the New York Times called “Your Coronavirus Test is Positive, Maybe It Shouldn’t Be.” This article provides explanations for why COVID-19 tests do not indicate whether or not an infected individual can actually spread the disease, as the amount of virus within the body correlates to how contagious they are.

Discussion Board Post:

“Your Coronavirus Test is Positive, Maybe It Shouldn’t Be” – The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/29/health/coronavirus-testing.html

I found this article very appealing because it elaborates on a problem that I had not thought about earlier in regards to Coronavirus testing. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the standard tests are diagnosing an enormous amount of people with the virus who are asymptomatic because they have “relatively insignificant amounts of the virus.” and as a result, they are not likely to be contagious. I personally was not aware that whether or not an individual has a contagious form of COVID-19 can depend on the amount of the virus in their bodies as I always thought all people could easily spread the disease even if they have the smallest amount of it in their bodies. The issue here is that identifying people with the virus who are not contagious may prevent identifying those who are actually contagious in time before they are able to spread it. However, researchers explain that the solution to this problem is not easy as it would be redundant to test fewer people or to skip testing people without symptoms since many people who are asymptomatic can still very well be contagious. Instead, the production and widespread distribution of rapid tests is critical for preventing the spread of the disease so even those who are asymptomatic can easily get tested and know their results in a relatively short period of time.

The newest rapid mechanism for testing is called a PCR test, which provides a simple yes or no answer to whether or not a patient is infected. However, similar PCR tests for other viruses provide more details about the patient’s infection, including a rough estimate of the amount of virus in the patient’s body which can determine if they are contagious. Dr. Michael Mina, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, says that a yes-no answer is not sufficient enough and that “it’s really irresponsible…to forgo the recognition that this is a quantitative issue.” He believes it is urgent that the CDC and FDA work together to produce and widely distribute highly sensitive PCR tests that provide better quantitative measurements of the results of each COVID-19 test. No matter how expensive they are, these tests will detect all of the most transmissable people which according to Dr. Mina, can “drive epidemics practically to zero.” 

As a student studying biology, virology and epidemiology are two branches of biology that are critical for my understanding of how the human body reacts to certain biological processes. In terms of the virology of the Coronavirus, I found the correlation between the amount of the virus and contagiousness very interesting and it furthered my understanding of how viruses, specifically those that cause infectious diseases, are able to affect humans. More advanced methods of testing, such as highly sensitive PCR testing, are required not only to slow the spread of the virus, but also to provide scientists and students like myself a better understanding of the quantitative measurements involved in the virology of the Coronavirus.

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