Lisa Marshall: Frequent, Rapid Testing Could Turn National COVID-19 Tide within Weeks

Here are some passages as teasers. I added bullets to separate passages.

Testing half the population weekly with inexpensive, rapid-turnaround COVID-19 tests would drive the virus toward elimination within weeks—even if those tests are significantly less sensitive than gold-standard clinical tests, according to a new study published today by CU Boulder and Harvard University researchers.
When it came to curbing spread … frequency and turnaround time are much more important than test sensitivity.
In the past, federal regulators and the public have been reluctant to embrace rapid tests out of concern that they may miss cases early in infection. But, in reality, an infected person can go from 5,000 particles to 1 million viral RNA copies in 18 to 24 hours …
“There is a very short window, early in infection, in which the PCR will detect the virus but something like an antigen or LAMP test won’t” …
And during that time, the person often isn’t contagious …
“These rapid tests are contagiousness tests” …
“Less than .1% of the current cost of this virus would enable frequent testing for the whole of the U.S. population for a year,” said Mina, referencing a recent economic analysis published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
“It’s time to shift the mentality around testing from thinking of a COVID test as something you get when you think you are sick to thinking of it as a vital tool to break transmission chains and keep the economy open” …