COVID spit test is faster, cheaper, avoids shortages—and now greenlit by FDA

Enlarge / A doctor wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) prepares to take a saliva swab from a patients during coronavirus symptom tests in the coronavirus outpatient clinic at the Paracelsus Clinic in Zwickau, Germany, on Thursday, April 2, 2020. (credit: Getty | Bloomberg)

The US Food and Drug Administration this weekend authorized a saliva-based diagnostic test for COVID-19 that costs less than $5, is faster than current laboratory tests, and may dodge supply shortages plaguing the country-without losing much in accuracy, according to early data.

The test, called SalivaDirect, was developed by researchers at Yale University, who have no plans to commercialize the test and have made the test's protocol completely open and available.

If the protocol becomes widely adopted, it could help improve the country's COVID-19 testing, which is currently dismal. Some patients face weeks-long waits to get results. With such long delays, contact tracers have no chance of reaching out to those exposed before they have the chance to pass on the infection. The delays stem from the sheer volume of tests coming in, as well as shortages of critical supplies, such as nose swabs and chemical reagents necessary to run the tests. SalivaDirect tries to address both of those problems.

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