<story><title>Scientists baffled by decision to stop a pioneering coronavirus testing project</title><url>https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01543-x</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>osamagirl69</author><text>Wasn&amp;#x27;t this the result of the project changing its scope to be outside of what the FDA authorized? They put out a press release [1] on May 14 which explained why they were being shutdown--the FDA authorization allowed them to collect samples but not to return the results. By starting to share the individual test results back to those who provided the samples the program was no longer operating within its authorization and was shut down until a new authorization could be secured.&lt;p&gt;While I don&amp;#x27;t agree with the FDA on their response, it seems disingenuous that this article doesn&amp;#x27;t mention the reason why the program was shut down. It is clearly much riskier to provide individuals with their test results than to collect aggregate data. Consider for example if you gave 1 false negative, and that person then took that false negative as an excuse to return to work -- potentially infecting many more. With aggregate data a few false positives&amp;#x2F;negatives could throw off the statistics but the standards the tests need to be held to for survey purposes are certainly different than those being used for diagnostic purposes.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;scanpublichealth.org&amp;#x2F;updates&amp;#x2F;2020-05-13&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;scanpublichealth.org&amp;#x2F;updates&amp;#x2F;2020-05-13&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Scientists baffled by decision to stop a pioneering coronavirus testing project</title><url>https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01543-x</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>vorpalhex</author><text>&amp;gt; An FDA spokesperson explains that anything that requires a person to take samples themselves, at home, raises concerns. For example, the agency wants to ensure that samples remain stable if they end up spending a long time in a hot vehicle on the way to a lab.&lt;p&gt;Not exactly a baffling secret. At home sample collection wasn&amp;#x27;t included in the guidelines, sounds like  FDA is evaluating and may still give a go ahead.</text></comment>