Atlanta-based doctor on the effectiveness of rapid COVID at-home tests.

March 7th, 2022

The website, COVIDTests.gov, now includes a link for Americans to an order form run by the U.S. Postal Service where Americans can request four at-home tests per residential address. (AP Photo/David Dermer, File)

Wilbur Lam, one of the three principal investigators for the Atlanta Center for Microsystems Engineered Point-of-Care Technologies, says before the COVID-19 pandemic, the average time it took to develop and send a diagnostic test to the market was 10 years.

Lam, a guest on Monday’s edition of “Closer Look” told program host Rose Scott that the process in making quickly available was the result of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative.

While discussing the difference between a COVID rapid at-home test and a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, Dr. Lam explained that there isn’t a perfect test.

Lam explained that PCR tests have to be taken to a lab for results and rapid tests are accessible but are not as sensitive as a PCR test.