Matthew Binnicker, Ph.D., discusses COVID-19 testing in Wired

By Tracy Will • December 16, 2020

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The digital publication Wired recently delved into the intricacies of COVID-19 testing and what it means when a test result comes back positive.

In the article, Matthew Binnicker, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic clinical microbiologist who studies viral infections, discussed the impact of false-positive COVID-19 test results, as well as the critical importance of testing being used as one part of a broader approach to controlling the virus.

"Testing is not a foolproof strategy to allow anyone to go about their normal daily lives without also using the other mitigation strategies,” Dr. Binnicker says. “If you layer [testing] with masking, and then physical distancing, then you create a strategy where together it significantly reduces the chance of transmission.”

The article also reviewed a variety of testing approaches, and it examined the effect an infected individual's viral load may have on a test result.

Read the full article.

Tracy Will

Tracy Will is a senior marketing specialist at Mayo Clinic Laboratories where she covers innovation, specialty testing, and advances in laboratory medicine. Tracy has worked at Mayo Clinic since 2016.