Finding ways to forge through the COVID-19 pandemic
As the coronoavirus pandemic spreads and hunkered-down Americans wonder when and how they’ll get back on the job, a Harvard epidemiologist said a second type of test being developed could return to work the still small but rising numbers of those previously infected, and thus immune to the virus. Marc Lipsitch, director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said development and use of serological testing — which is already done routinely to test exposure to other pathogens — could help identify people who may be immune. Lipsitch, speaking during a media conference call on Friday, said there’s no reason the second wave of testing should wait for completion of the first round of testing involving people suspected of having COVID-19. Serological testing, which may be possible to do at home, could identify those who had been infected but developed mild or no...