Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, February. I'm Oscar Emiras from the Daily Dive
Speaker 1: podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America. It
Speaker 1: seems counterintuitive, but some COVID tests can't pick up on
Speaker 1: certain variants in their results, and labs are using those
Speaker 1: very same tests to flag if you might have the
Speaker 1: UK variant. If tests come back positive for COVID nineteen
Speaker 1: but fail a specific section of the test, that could
Speaker 1: be an indicator that someone is infected with the UK strain.
Speaker 1: Brianna Abbott, health reporter at the Wall Street Journal, joins
Speaker 1: us for how some tests are being used to flag
Speaker 1: different COVID variants. Thanks for joining us, Branna, thanks for
Speaker 1: having me. We're seeing that there's a handful of COVID
Speaker 1: tests that, in one way can help flag these new
Speaker 1: variants that we're seeing out there. In another way they can't.
Speaker 1: So there's this handful of tests that can't really detect
Speaker 1: a certain part of the UK variant. But in these
Speaker 1: tests where we see that this one little component might
Speaker 1: be missing, they're actually able to tell that it is
Speaker 1: this variant that is in the one that has infected
Speaker 1: the person. So Branna tell us a little bit about
Speaker 1: what we're seeing with these tests and how some of
Speaker 1: them are able to flag this UK variant. So it's
Speaker 1: a little counterintuitive. Um So, basically the way that work is,
Speaker 1: as far as we know right now, the vast majority
Speaker 1: of COVID tests still work just fine on the variants.
Speaker 1: So if you're infected with the virus that that happens
Speaker 1: to be a variant like, the test will still come
Speaker 1: up as a positive. But um for just a handful
Speaker 1: of the test, one section of the test isn't working
Speaker 1: from the UK variants. So a lot of these tests
Speaker 1: actually have multiple different parts. In one instance, this one
Speaker 1: test that we're talking about from Thermo Fish or Scientific
Speaker 1: actually has three different parts where it searches for three
Speaker 1: different chunks of the virus. Is genetic material. Now in
Speaker 1: the UK variant, there's actually a section of the genetic
Speaker 1: code in the spike protein area, which is something that
Speaker 1: folks may have heard of. It's one of the proteins
Speaker 1: that hangs on the surface of the virus that part
Speaker 1: of the genetic code. Some of the tests can no
Speaker 1: longer pick that up. But the thing about that is
Speaker 1: it's actually more of a benefit than a detriment In
Speaker 1: some situations, because if you're looking at these test results
Speaker 1: and you see that one section of the test isn't working,
Speaker 1: but the two other sections still work, you can say
Speaker 1: that looks funny and that might actually be one of
Speaker 1: the variants that we're looking for. This is really important.
Speaker 1: There's been a ton of calls for more genetic sequencing,
Speaker 1: more surveillance of these variants because we need to know
Speaker 1: what's circulating. This has to do with all sorts of
Speaker 1: things vaccines, tweaks to those things as well, So it's
Speaker 1: important to know what's going on here, and one failure
Speaker 1: in these tests is important if they're all clues to
Speaker 1: what's moving around. Now these testing questions, these are the
Speaker 1: PCR tests. They're not like the rapid response tests or
Speaker 1: anything like that. Right, yes, let's correct these tests and
Speaker 1: question from this specific lab right now, what are they
Speaker 1: doing to either change the test or they just kind
Speaker 1: of going through with the ones that they have and
Speaker 1: just kind of flagging the ones that don't mark all
Speaker 1: three sections. The company UM, which is sort of this
Speaker 1: big diagnostics company, is working on a software update that
Speaker 1: will go along with the tests that will sort of
Speaker 1: more easily flag when something like this occurs, so laboratories
Speaker 1: can see it and then send it off for a sequencing,
Speaker 1: and they're also sort of working on a new test
Speaker 1: that is able to specifically identify some of the key
Speaker 1: variants that we're looking for. And sort of just to
Speaker 1: be clear about sort of what these tests are doing
Speaker 1: is they're slightly separate from the genomic sequencing, which sort
Speaker 1: of analyzes the genome of the virus that can tell
Speaker 1: her of helps figure out the variant that it is Infectually,
Speaker 1: these experts say that we're going to need a lot
Speaker 1: more of surveillance and genomic sequencing in general to keep
Speaker 1: track of these variants and that the flucan sort of
Speaker 1: these tests is helpful to a certain extent, but it
Speaker 1: definitely can't get the job done by itself, and we
Speaker 1: sort of need wider screening as on a whole. And
Speaker 1: there's no cause for concern for many people. As you mentioned,
Speaker 1: if you have coronavirus, the tests are still going to
Speaker 1: pick that up. This has to do with kind of
Speaker 1: the arian and the way the tests work in targeting
Speaker 1: the spike protein. That's the thing in the case right
Speaker 1: with this, So of all the tests that are authorized
Speaker 1: looking at the virus genetic material about those don't target
Speaker 1: the spike proteins. So the majority of tests are are
Speaker 1: going to be good enough to go through and get
Speaker 1: accurate results at least. So a lot of these tests
Speaker 1: that are authorized right now, there is a risk that
Speaker 1: you know, the virus mutate and some of the tests
Speaker 1: become less sensitive, Like just like with vaccines and therapeutics,
Speaker 1: that's something that's on the table, but because up on
Speaker 1: the table, we've known that the entire time, just because
Speaker 1: you know, virus is mutate and spread, and so a
Speaker 1: lot of these tests look for multiple sections of the
Speaker 1: virus sort of as a way to combat the potential
Speaker 1: for mutation. So like a lot of the robustness is
Speaker 1: sort of built right into the way that these tests
Speaker 1: are designed. But you're absolutely correct. A lot of the
Speaker 1: mutations for variants, not just with the UK variant, but
Speaker 1: with the one from South Africa as well. A lot
Speaker 1: of the mutations have happened on the spike protein, and
Speaker 1: a lot of the diagnostic tests, both the molecular ones
Speaker 1: and the rapid antigen ones, don't actually look for the
Speaker 1: spike protein. They look for other sections of the genome
Speaker 1: or a different protein. So a lot of them aren't
Speaker 1: going to be affected by the mutations that we're seeing
Speaker 1: so far. And going back to what you were saying
Speaker 1: about surveillance and sequencing of the of the genomes and all,
Speaker 1: the Biden administration has said that the CDC is going
Speaker 1: to invest about two million dollars to scale up this
Speaker 1: stuff any other things that the administration is looking forward
Speaker 1: to doing on this front. The CDC sort of first
Speaker 1: tried to launch a national surveillance system for this viral
Speaker 1: sequencing sort of back in November when we sort of
Speaker 1: realize that these variants of concerned we're cropping up in
Speaker 1: the US, we're pretty far behind sequencing compared to somewhere
Speaker 1: like the UK, which identified it's variant sort of because
Speaker 1: if it's robust sequence things, we don't actually know sort
Speaker 1: of all of the variants that might be circulating in
Speaker 1: the US right now, just because we really haven't been
Speaker 1: looking for them. So that's something that public health experts
Speaker 1: are really sort of keen to gear up on. The
Speaker 1: Biden administration sort of is on board, like we said,
Speaker 1: with the money from the CDC to do this, So
Speaker 1: it's definitely something that health officials are pushing for as
Speaker 1: we start to continuously see this virus muta and change
Speaker 1: sort of as it continues to spread. Brianna Abbott, health
Speaker 1: reporter at The Wall Street Journal, thank you very much
Speaker 1: for joining us. Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm Oscar
Speaker 1: Emiras and this has been reopening America. Don't forget difference
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