Simpler virus testing approach could reduce unnecessary PCR tests in high-risk settings

Publication date: Jun 24, 2025

The researchers estimate that the cost of commercial PCR tests are roughly five to 15 times greater than the cost of biomarker tests. “If you wanted to screen every person who walked through the door for every respiratory virus, it would be difficult and prohibitively expensive,” said Foxman. Most people aren’t going to have viruses, so you don’t want to do sophisticated, expensive tests for them. This strategy could have been useful during the early COVID-19 pandemic, when our hospital was sometimes testing 10,000 or more people per week. ” “So the question was, how do you triage testing in these settings? It’s exciting to consider the possible applications. “

Concepts	Keywords
Immunosuppressive	Associate
June	Biomarker
Pcr	Foxman
Yale	Infections
	Laboratory
	Pcr
	Professor
	Screening
	Settings
	Test
	Testing
	Tests
	Viral
	Virus
	Yale

Semantics

Type	Source	Name
disease	MESH	COVID-19 pandemic
disease	MESH	infections
drug	DRUGBANK	Gold
disease	MESH	viral infections
disease	IDO	protein
disease	IDO	infection
disease	MESH	respiratory infections
disease	MESH	cancer
drug	DRUGBANK	Etoperidone
disease	MESH	infectious diseases