10 Time May 9/May 16, 2022
GOOD QUESTION
Is it time to track at-home COVID-19 tests?official covid-19 case counTs are
increasingly misleading. Many Americans
now rely on at-home tests, the results of
which are rarely shared with public-health
officials—so experts worry that case num-
bers are now an unreliable way to judge the
state of the pandemic.
Unlike COVID-19 testing sites, which
must share data with public-health depart-
ments, individuals aren’t required to report
the results of their home tests. The U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Preven-
tion recommends that people share their
positive results with their doctor, who may
recommend a laboratory test to confirm
the result and add it to official tallies. But
about 30% of people who tested positive
using an at-home kit didn’t get a second-
ary test, according to a January survey from
the COVID States Project. That number is
likely higher now, given the closure of some
mass testing sites, the end of free testing
programs for the uninsured, and the relax-
ation of pandemic precautions.
A national reporting system for home-
test data could help experts track the
pandemic—but the question is how to
make one work.
Some state health departments and at-
home test kits already have systems forvoluntarily reporting results, but few peo-
ple do. In a federal pilot program, more than
1.4 million tests were given to households
in Tennessee and Michigan in 2021—but
fewer than 10,000 test results were logged
in a companion app, Health Affairs reports.
Public-health officials should work with
test companies to make their self-reporting
systems easier, says John Brownstein, chief
innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hos-
pital. Instead of downloading an app, for
example, people could send in their results
via text message. His research group also
runs a website where people can quickly
log their results and see disease trends in
their area. Although 100% participation in
such a system is unlikely without report-
ing requirements or incentives, Brownstein
still thinks it has value. “Not many peo-
ple [write Amazon reviews],” he says, but
enough do “to give you a sense of the value
of a product.”
Another possible option? Repeated sur-
veys of American households, asking if any-
one recently tested positive and on which
type of test, says David Lazer, co-author of
the COVID States Project survey. Without
such data, Lazer says, the “missingness” in
COVID-19 case counts is likely worse than
ever. —Jamie ducharmeNEWS TICKER
Kamala Harris tested
positive for COVID-19,held former President
Donald Trump in
contemptmore than 70
people