The Push to Deploy At-Home Antigen Tests for COVID-19

These rapid tests could allow people to find out quickly and easily if they have the disease—if they get regulatory approval for the consumer market.

Written byChris Baraniuk
| 5 min read
antigen test covid-19 sars-cov-2 coronavirus pandemic pcr saliva diagnostics

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Testing backlogs, reagent shortages, and limited access have contributed to inadequate testing for COVID-19 in the US and elsewhere. But in recent months, new types of assay that promise to offer quicker, cheaper, and more user-friendly features have begun to roll out. Saliva tests, for one, are gaining traction as screening tools for universities and professional basketball teams. Antigen testing is another approach that, if given regulators’ blessings, might give consumers the ability to take their own tests at home and get results on the spot.

Several diagnostics firms are currently working to gain regulatory approval and bring products like this to market in huge numbers.

“This is like a wartime effort, there are many fronts that we’re trying to fight this disease,” says Stephen Tang, president and CEO of OraSure, which is working on a test that members of the public could take themselves. ...

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  • chris baraniuk

    Chris Baraniuk is a freelance science journalist based in Northern Ireland who contributes to The Scientist. He has covered biological and medical science for a range of publications, including the BBC, the BMJ, and Mosaic. He also writes about nature, climate change, and technology. His background in the humanities has long proved invaluable in his quest to bring science stories to people from all walks of life.

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