Stop the Spread has fulfilled its charter as of December 2021. This website has been frozen but will remain available through 2022.

Expanding America’s testing supply and equitable distribution infrastructure

We sought to not only mitigate but suppress the virus, helping increase America’s testing capabilities. We accomplished this by identifying affordable, rapid response point of care and point of need testing solutions that could support our nation’s most vulnerable communities. We offered test developers and manufacturers assistance in the form connections to vendors, research partners, samples, pilot testing partners, and distribution channels as well as funding.

Expanding

America’s testing supply & infrastructure

Stop the Spread helps increase America’s testing capabilities by facilitating funding to scale production and matching lab facilities with manufacturers. We also work with research, medical, and public institutions to form connections that advance and support new treatment and tracing efforts.

Testing: a critical need

Widespread molecular testing was needed to better understand the ways that COVID-19 spreads and to safely open the country. We estimated testing needs to increase to 30+M/week to detect all symptomatic and asymptomatic patients and suppress the spread of the virus.

CASE STUDIES

Here are select opportunities that Stop the Spread helped connect and catalyze:

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GAD and SEKO: Shipping low-cost diagnostics globally

Global Access Diagnostics (GAD) is a UK-based social enterprise delivering millions of affordable diagnostics to low and middle income countries. They quickly ramped up production at their UK headquarters in response to COVID and were burdened by managing all outbound logistics in-house.

Enter SEKO, a leading third-party logistics company and member of the C19 Coalition along with Stop the Spread. SEKO's expertise proved to be an excellent match for GAD's ambition. Together, they have been able to increase diagnostic shipping volume and partner on long-term scaling strategies to ensure GAD’s supply chain is resilient moving forward.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has not only highlighted the critical supply chain challenges faced by lower income countries, but also the importance of investing in a strengthening of diseases surveillance, diagnosis and management in these regions, as an investment in collective health security for us all.  STS has been instrumental in linking us with partners like SEKO, who can directly assist us in our goal of building access and affordability of diagnostics for those who need them most.” - Mark Radford, Executive Director of GAD

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Form Labs & Northwell Health: 3D Printing & Sterilizing Sample Collection Swabs at Scale

Formlabs, a 3D printing manufacturer, recognized they could leverage their technology to help address the nationwide shortage of sample collection swabs required for COVID-19 testing. Working with Northwell Health and USF Health researchers, Formlabs developed a 3D printed swab, yet lacked the capabilities to sterilize the swabs for distribution to other hospitals. Stop the Spread is introducing Formlabs to contract manufacturers with sterilization capabilities to help form a new connection that addresses their needs.

Columbia University: Scaling Precise Viral Load Testing

Precise viral load testing allows for measurement of the levels of the virus and the stage of the illness. These measurements are critical for clinical tests of COVID-19 treatments like plasma therapy. Columbia University is currently producing 200 tests per day for Johns Hopkins University to conduct clinical tests, but require additional funding to scale. Stop the Spread is working to facilitate philanthropic funding to support the rapid scaling of these tests.

I Can Help:

Resources for Testing

STS Resources

A Testing Model to Control the Surge

How can a "Surveil, Screen, Diagnose, Support" testing model help control COVID-19?

Deploying Rapid Antigen Tests

How can rapid antigen tests be deployed appropriately to expand our testing capabilities?

How to Pay for COVID Testing

Insight into the high cost of testing and potential public & private sector solutions

Wastewater Surveillance

How can wastewater surveillance technology be deployed to detect cases of COVID quickly, affordably, and anonymously?

A Call for Community-Based Testing

How do we increase access to testing in underserved communities?

Future State of Testing

What should the future of testing look like?

Preparing for a "Return to Work"

How should employers prepare for the "Return to Work"?

Testing & Reopening Our Economy

How testing strategies support the reopening of our economy

Testing Prioritization

How should testing resources be allocated to best target priority groups?

Contact Tracing

Existing models and best practices for contract tracing (April 2020)

Full Factbase

Overview of information related to COVID-19 Testing (September 2020)

External Resources

COVID-19 Testing Impact Calculator

A modeling tool that visually shows how different mitigation strategies can minimize the spread of COVID-19

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Molecular testing capacity of large labs

Daily molecular tests performed by American Clinical Laboratory Assoc. members

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John Hopkins Global COVID-19 Cases Dashboard

Up-to-date U.S. and Global COVID-19 cases

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COVID Tracking Project: US Testing Volumes

Up-to-date current testing levels in the U.S.

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FDA Emergency Use Authorizations

EUA approvals across Medical Devices (Testing, Ventilator, and PPE)

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