Public Health

The fourth COVID-19 wave is here Cases are up 17% over last week. Sam Baker,Andrew Witherspoon Axios

The big picture: America may be at the beginning of a fourth wave in the pandemic. It will almost certainly be far less deadly than the previous three, but this persistent failure to contain the virus has real consequences, and will only make it harder to put COVID-19 behind us.

More consumers will soon be able to test themselves for COVID-19 from the comfort of their own home. On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration approved two rapid antigen home tests for use in the U.S.

Americans will soon be able to purchase Abbott's BinaxNOW and Quidel Quickvue tests at drug stores. The two options join a test made by Ellume, which received FDA approval in December, in the market. The two, newly-approved swab tests will be sold at a lower price point.

The BinaxNOW and Quickvue tests are expected to be sold in two-packs for around $15-20; Ellume costs $30.

Analysis of Asymptomatic and Presymptomatic Transmission in SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak, Germany, 2020

Catching the coronavirus from people who are asymptomatic, individuals who are infected but never have symptoms, may be exceptionally rare, according to a small but thorough study of 59 people who had the virus and 254 people they interacted with. However, presymptomatic individuals, those who are infected but haven’t yet begun to show symptoms, accounted for 75 percent of confirmed transmission events, researchers report in an April dispatch of Emerging Infectious Disease.

The seven asymptomatic cases did not transmit the virus to any of their contacts. Twenty-two of the 29 transmission events occurred when an infected person who was not yet showing symptoms interacted with people outside of their household. The study underlines the importance of isolation after testing positive, to reduce the chance of transmission even before symptoms start. ...