Boston epidemiologist: Testing is key for anti-viral COVID-19 pill’s success

A Boston epidemiologist is emphasizing the need for accessible rapid COVID-19 tests if Pfizer’s pill is going to have a shot at curbing the disease.

c is working with eMed, a digital point of care platform that provides verified testing and access to prescription treatment, to help those sickened by COVID get test results — and treatment — as soon as possible. 

Pfizer’s pill reportedly reduces severe COVID symptoms by 89 percent, which Mina says can lower the impact of the virus on society.

But the pill must be taken within three days of the onset of COVID symptoms.

Mina’s plea for accessible rapid testing has been ongoing throughout the pandemic but carries on amid a surge of COVID cases across the U.S. and spiraling anxiety over the omicron variant. The U.S. is averaging nearly 120,000 new COVID cases per day, which is 40 percent higher than just one month ago, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

On Thursday, Massachusetts reported 5,883 new COVID cases, 1,473 new hospitalizations, and 30 new deaths. The total confirmed cases in the state are now 927,563. Just last week, a professor of environmental health at the Boston University School of Public Health called on officials to take action after he found that traces of COVID in local wastewater predict a rise in cases in coming weeks.

“It has NEVER been this high, even at last winter’s peak,” Professor Jon Levy tweeted. “And vax rates in MA are generally higher in Greater Boston. And this is likely before #Omicron.”

On Thursday, news broke that New York City’s COVID positivity rate doubled in just three days. 

“We’ve never seen this before in #NYC,” Dr. Jay Varma, an advisor to Mayor Bill de Blasio, tweeted in regard to the dramatic jump in positivity.

Mina says all high-risk households should have a few rapid tests at any given time. 

“Use it in a verifiable way and it can initiate a prescription and home delivery of medicine,” he said.

Mina resigned from his faculty role at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health to step into his new job as Chief Science Officer at eMed in November. On Twitter, Mina said he’s working with the platform to make rapid “test-to-treat” a reality so the nation “doesn’t find itself with life-saving drugs that do no good just [because] we can’t get [people] tested in time.” 

“Rapid testing is a solution to an otherwise difficult problem of early detection,” said Mina.

More than 100 Massachusetts cities and towns will get more than 2 million iHealth Lab rapid COVID tests to hand out to residents free of charge. The tests are part of a state plan to focus testing on towns with the highest percentage of families below the poverty line. State officials were expected to distribute the tests this week.