testing

29Mar

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

EDUCATION, Journalism

Another Blow To Black And Latino Students – Ending Testing For New York City’s Gifted Program

After years of relying on a single controversial test at age 4 for admission to their gifted programs, New York City schools are about to embark upon a new way to identify gifted students. The city’s Department of Education announced in February that it would stop testing students for its gifted program, which places top students in schools with curriculum designed for high academic achievement. Instead, preschool teachers will refer students for consideration. The city’s new schools chancellor, Meisha Porter, who was named to that post March 15, has said that overhauling the gifted and talented system is one of her top priorities. That means the new system likely won’t be long-term, though there’s still reason to be concerned. Research has shown that teacher referrals tend to lead to fe...

Will the new 15-minute COVID-19 test solve US testing problems?

2Sep

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19

Will the new 15-minute COVID-19 test solve US testing problems?

On Aug. 26, the Food and Drug Administration granted an Emergency Use Authorization to a new rapid antigen test for COVID-19 called the BinaxNOW test. I study public health policy to combat infectious disease epidemics. Testing is one of the most powerful tools available to fight the spread of COVID-19. The new test is inexpensive, rapid and easy to use. It will massively scale up access to testing, but hurdles remain in achieving widespread, frequent COVID-19 testing. The Abbott BinaxNOW rapid antigen test claims to give results in 15 minutes. Abbott What type of test is BinaxNOW? The credit-card-sized test is an antigen test that detects a specific viral protein from SARS-CoV-2. It costs US$5 and doesn’t require a lab or a machine for processing. Performing the test is simple. A health...

What the huge COVID-19 testing undercount in the US means

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, VIDEO REELS

What the huge COVID-19 testing undercount in the US means

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other institutions recently published a study which estimated that the true number of people infected by COVID-19 could be six to 24 times higher than the number of confirmed cases. Melissa Hawkins, professor of public health at American University, explains what this large undercount means and why insufficient data is hampering the U.S.‘s ability to control the pandemic. Melissa Hawkins explains the implications of the COVID-19 testing undercount. What are some reasons for the large disparity between the true number of infected cases and the confirmed case count in the U.S.? We just passed 4 million total confirmed cases and over 150,000 deaths. But those confirmed cases really only tell part of the story since we know th...

Random testing in Indiana shows COVID-19 is 6 times deadlier than flu, and 2.8% of the state has been infected

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Random testing in Indiana shows COVID-19 is 6 times deadlier than flu, and 2.8% of the state has been infected

Since day one of the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. has not had enough tests. Faced with this shortage, medical professionals used what tests they had on people with the worst symptoms or whose occupations put them at high risk for infection. People who were less sick or asymptomatic did not get tested. Because of this, many infected people in the U.S. have not been tested, and much of the information public health officials have about the spread and deadliness of the virus does not provide a complete picture. Short of testing every person in the U.S., the best way to get accurate data on who and how many people have been infected with the coronavirus is to test randomly. I am a professor of health policy and management at Indiana University, and random testing is exactly what we did in ...

A restart of nuclear testing offers little scientific value to the US and would benefit other countries

15Jul

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SCIENCE

A restart of nuclear testing offers little scientific value to the US and would benefit other countries

July 15, 2020 marks 75 years since the detonation of the first nuclear bomb. The Trinity Test, in New Mexico’s Jornada del Muerto desert, proved that the design for the Nagasaki Bomb worked and started the nuclear era. The U.S. tested nuclear bombs for decades. But at the end of the Cold War in 1992, the U.S. government imposed a moratorium on U.S. testing. This was strengthened by the Clinton administration’s decision to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Although the Senate never ratified the treaty and it never entered into force, all 184 countries that signed the test ban, including the U.S., have followed its rules. But in recent weeks, the Trump administration and Congress have begun debating whether to restart active testing of nuclear weapons on U.S. soil. Some cons...