Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, March seventeen. I'm Oscar Emiras from the Daily
Speaker 1: Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is your daily
Speaker 1: coronavirus update. Testing for coronavirus will soon start to ramp
Speaker 1: up as the government gets up to speed and also
Speaker 1: as private labs develop their own tests, such as the
Speaker 1: Mayo Clinic, who has made their own test that can
Speaker 1: detect the virus that causes COVID nineteen. Experts say that
Speaker 1: once this starts, we will begin to see confirmed cases rise.
Speaker 1: Dr Bill Maurice, president of Mayo Clinic Laboratories, joins us
Speaker 1: for white testing is so important. Thanks for joining us,
Speaker 1: Dr Maurice, that's my pleasure, Oscar. We're gonna be talking
Speaker 1: about coronavirus testing, COVID nineteen and why it's so important.
Speaker 1: First off, I want to start off the Mayo Clinic
Speaker 1: has developed a test that can detect stars cove to
Speaker 1: the virus that causes COVID nineteen. So tell us about
Speaker 1: the test that you guys developed first, and then we'll
Speaker 1: have a broaderct discussion about testing in general. So, Mayo
Speaker 1: Clinic Laboratories we actually form testing, not only for Mayo
Speaker 1: Clinic patients, but for patients across the Unites Eights and
Speaker 1: across the globe. So we're continually looking out for new
Speaker 1: tests that are gonna need to support patient care, and
Speaker 1: particularly we look out for new pathogens that might need
Speaker 1: to be diagnosed. So we're paying very close attention to
Speaker 1: how the COVID nineteen disease was playing out in China,
Speaker 1: and about four weeks ago our own internal Mayo clinic
Speaker 1: doctors started to enquire about the availability of COVID nineteen testing,
Speaker 1: and as we saw the disease really overwhelmed the healthcare
Speaker 1: system in China, we determined that really we would want
Speaker 1: to develop our own diagnostic essay for the disease, even
Speaker 1: though at that time testing was mandated to go through
Speaker 1: the CDC. So we've been working on the test for
Speaker 1: about a month. We do have a partner lab in China,
Speaker 1: Ushi Diagnostics, and so we really got firsthand counting of
Speaker 1: how difficult it was to keep up with the demand
Speaker 1: for testing, so we pretty much put a team on
Speaker 1: this around the clock to develop our own molecular test
Speaker 1: to detect the virus, and so that was something that
Speaker 1: gave us a bit of a head start, so we
Speaker 1: were able to late last week actually introduced a clinical
Speaker 1: test to detect the virus in clinical specimens. And how
Speaker 1: does the testing work and what does the turnaround time
Speaker 1: for results? So the testing works by a method called PCR,
Speaker 1: So basically it's a molecular amplification of the stars copy
Speaker 1: two virus out of the specimen. Once we get the
Speaker 1: specimen in the lab, it takes us anywhere from four
Speaker 1: to five hours to actually generate a result. So if
Speaker 1: we can get the specimen to us quickly, we can
Speaker 1: usually turn around a test within a day or so.
Speaker 1: I've read that the Mayo clinic there works in close
Speaker 1: contact with the Minnesota Department of Health. I guess results
Speaker 1: are sent there to be verified after not verified per se.
Speaker 1: Just the essay that we have is actually approved for
Speaker 1: use by the FDA. So a result as a result,
Speaker 1: a positive, as a positive, negative and negative. The Minnesota
Speaker 1: Department of Health really needs to know about when we
Speaker 1: have a positive case because really they're trying to track
Speaker 1: how the disease is spreading in the state. And that's
Speaker 1: why the CDC and all the departments of health are
Speaker 1: actually working collaborations, so we can't understand how it spreads
Speaker 1: across the country, which is of course really important as
Speaker 1: we try and contain the spread of COVID nineteen. In fact,
Speaker 1: that rationale explains why typically when I knew infection or
Speaker 1: pathogen becomes president in the United States, the initial disease
Speaker 1: testing is almost always handled by the CDC, just because
Speaker 1: it gives them a good handle about how the disease
Speaker 1: is spreading and also to make sure that the diagnosis
Speaker 1: is accurate. However, in this case, again, this COVID nineteen
Speaker 1: has really overwhelmed. It's usually a very robust system for
Speaker 1: responding to these things. So we still form our testing
Speaker 1: but reported to the Minnesota Department of Health, and that's
Speaker 1: also important. That's the broader importance of testing and making
Speaker 1: sure we can find who has it and then obviously
Speaker 1: follow it down the pathway who they've been in contact
Speaker 1: with some numbers that we've been seeing. The US has
Speaker 1: completed about twenty coronavirus tests as of last Friday, so
Speaker 1: the testing response has been very slow up until now.
Speaker 1: It'll start ramping up with tests like yours and others
Speaker 1: as well. But they explain to us why this is
Speaker 1: so important, and we're gonna see numbers explode is from
Speaker 1: what everybody's saying. You know, once we start getting true numbers,
Speaker 1: true tests, we're going to see the numbers rise of
Speaker 1: confirmed cases. But help explain to us why this is
Speaker 1: of the utmost importance. There's really two reasons why getting
Speaker 1: the testing done is really important. Number one, it's to
Speaker 1: really understand and protect those who are particular risk for
Speaker 1: this particular COVID nineteen infection. If you look at the
Speaker 1: experience in China and in northern Italy where we're now
Speaker 1: getting results published in the medical literature, it really is
Speaker 1: becoming a parent that for patients that are young and healthy,
Speaker 1: it poses a pretty minimal health risk, similar to influenza
Speaker 1: or other respiratory viruses, but for the elderly or those
Speaker 1: with an underlying medical condition, they can get into really
Speaker 1: serious double requiring intensive hospitalization. And so the first aspect
Speaker 1: of the testing is really to identify who has it
Speaker 1: to make sure that we can try and protect those
Speaker 1: who might be particularly at risk for having a bad
Speaker 1: outcome from COVID nineteen infection. And the other is to
Speaker 1: understand how the disease is spreading across the United States
Speaker 1: so we can really try and institute containment measures which
Speaker 1: are becoming shown to be really important and protecting those
Speaker 1: who are particularly likely to develop a bad disease. So that,
Speaker 1: of course is balanced against the fact that this is
Speaker 1: an extremely unusual situation where you have essentially, on the
Speaker 1: turn of a dime, two million Americans wanting a test
Speaker 1: that didn't exist two to three months ago, and so
Speaker 1: the national supplies are not endless, and we really need
Speaker 1: to be thoughtful about who gets the testing. That's why
Speaker 1: it's really important that people who want the testing first
Speaker 1: get screened by their primary care provider to make sure
Speaker 1: that they actually need the testing before it gets performed,
Speaker 1: and also to make sure they get tested for other
Speaker 1: viral and says it's still most cases of viral respiratory
Speaker 1: tract infection that you'll see in the community will be
Speaker 1: influence A or other more common viruses, right, So that's
Speaker 1: why so that's really important to do the testing in
Speaker 1: the right people to protect them and to protect the public.
Speaker 1: And that's a tough one because as we hear a
Speaker 1: lot about it in the news, more and more people
Speaker 1: are getting it. I think the latest news is the
Speaker 1: actor Idris Elba has it. I've had some friends that
Speaker 1: said I don't feel any symptoms, maybe I'm asymptomatic. I
Speaker 1: want to get tested anyways, So people are colamoring for this,
Speaker 1: but you know, you got to take the advice. Obviously,
Speaker 1: all the people that are experiencing symptoms, all that need
Speaker 1: to go first. That's where the necessity is. Look, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of unknown with this stars Kobe two or
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen affection, which of course engenders a lot of fear.
Speaker 1: I get it completely, and yet we have to be
Speaker 1: thoughtful to make sure that we can have the test available. Say,
Speaker 1: if someone comes to the hospital and we have to
Speaker 1: make a rapid decision as to whether they need isolateation
Speaker 1: or as it turns out, if they do have this
Speaker 1: disease and their shorter breath, they might need to get
Speaker 1: into an intensive care unit early. As much as people
Speaker 1: want to know if they have the infection, which is
Speaker 1: totally understandable, we have to be sure as healthcare providers
Speaker 1: that we have the ability to test the patients where
Speaker 1: we're going to be making really critical decisions that will
Speaker 1: affect people's lives. Dr Bill Maurice, President of Mayo Clinic Laboratories,
Speaker 1: thank you very much for joining us. Oh my pleasure.
Speaker 1: This has been your daily coronavirus update. Don't forget that.
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