FDA approves test that should radically improve our testing. This has the potential to quickly double our testing bandwidth. Big news.
Full pre-print here:
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.03.20167791v1.full.pdf
This is a saliva PCR test, and it's a breakthrough several ways. It's about $2/test, doesn't require any fancy collection techniques, it works with materials from a bunch of different suppliers (easing supply-chain bottlenecks) and it skips some expensive steps that require hard-to-get reagents.
It could be available in large quantities in weeks.
I'm a bit concerned that the entire PDF doesn't mention specificity or sensitivity directly, all of their tests are duplicates against existing tests. (Run this test and an existing one on the same patient at the same time.) They almost always agree on negatives, and seem to agree on positives about 90% of the time.