Free Republic

NYC has seen vending machines for engagement rings and Brooks Brothers shirts, as well as PPE like gloves and sanitizing wipes, but this new Manhattan machine is really testing the limits. Since January, a storefront at 225 W. 34th St. — formerly home to a Lane Bryant — has hosted two of health company Wellness 4 Humanity’s new vending machines, which sell DIY at-home COVID tests instead of snacks or sodas. For $149 — credit or debit cards only, no cash — you can pick up a PCR saliva test, use it at your leisure, mail it to one of...

A research professor at Rutgers University who developed the first saliva test for the coronavirus has unexpectedly died, the college said. New Jersey native Andrew Brooks, 51, passed away on Jan. 23, the university said in a statement, without elaborating. As the chief operating officer and director of technology development at RUCDR Infinite Biologics, Brooks led the effort to develop the COVID-19 saliva test. The test received emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration in April and a month later was approved for at-home use. More than 4 million of the rapid response tests have been performed since...

Up until now, doctors have only been able to use blood tests to detect cancer as long as the patient has already undergone a painful biopsy and sequenced a tumor. However, scientists have now developed a test which can detect cancer in ten minutes using just a drop of saliva. To be priced at $21, the "liquid biopsy" can be taken at home and is hailed as completely revolutionizing the way the disease is diagnosed. Professor David Wong of California State University says it is possible to detect tumor DNA when is it circulating in bodily fluids, noting, "We need...

The Food and Drug Administration approved yesterday the first H.I.V. test that uses saliva rather than blood and delivers results in 20 minutes. Public health officials hope the new test will encourage wider and more frequent testing. About 25 percent of all Americans carrying H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, do not know that they are infected, according to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Around the world, according to the World Health Organization, that figure may be as high as 95 percent. Although the test is as easy to use as a home-pregnancy kit and could...