Covid-19 roundup: Peter Kolchinsky’s RA Capital spearheads 'Covid Apollo,' a VC search for the best test; Upstart grabs €23M for nanobodies
Covid-19 testing in the US has been, well, a complete mess. Four months into the pandemic, lines for tests in some areas still stretch for miles, testing sites run out of spots minutes after opening, and people often wait more than a week to get results — a thorny bundle of delays and shortfalls that undermines the US’ ability to contain a burgeoning outbreak.
Numerous proposals have been put forward to address the testing deficit, most of them around increased government spending. Earlier this month, the Rockefeller Foundation put out a report calling for $75 billion in public funds to ramp up the mostly accurate but time-consuming PCR tests to 5 million tests per week, and ramp up the rapid but less precise antigen test to 30 million per week.
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