| More than 200,000 Americans have died from Covid-19, less than nine months after it arrived on U.S. shores. How many people have actually contracted the novel pathogen is anyone's guess, mainly because there isn't an effective way to survey the entire population, on a regular basis, for something that didn't exist a year ago.
But that is changing.
New approaches are in the works that promise to pull back the curtains on the coronavirus, letting people know in real time how much the virus is circulating in their community and whether they themselves are infected. Some methods are working in the background. For example, at the University of Arizona, researchers are testing the sewage flowing out of numerous dorms to detect signs of infection among unsuspecting undergrads. In many cases, evidence of infection is secreted in stool even before someone develops symptoms. Other efforts are going to take more work, both from the government and from individuals. Lateral flow, an approach that uses the same technology as a pregnancy test, is now reaching the market. Abbott Laboratories introduced Binax NOW, a disposable $5 test that takes just 15 minutes to get results. The company is making 50 million a month, and the U.S. government has cornered the market. But that's not nearly enough.  Abbott's BinaxNOW test is about the size of a credit card. Source: Abbott Laboratories OraSure Technologies is working on a version that people could take at home. E25Bio pivoted from tests for dengue in the developing world to coronavirus everywhere, in hopes that it can craft something that everyone can afford. And Mammoth Biosciences is harnessing Crispr technology, the biology breakthrough, to more quickly and accurately find miniscule traces of the virus. Until now, most testing has been basically like keeping a tally for the virus, which was winning the battle in its effort to spread throughout the country and the world. The rising rates, detailed imperfectly by our testing infrastructure, showed the pace of its attack. That's the take of Harvard professor William Hanage, who believes more information will help Americans and others use testing to help control the outbreak. The diagnostics industry is starting to deliver on technology to not only track and trace the virus, but to combat it. The people getting the tests are going to have to act on the knowledge, however. In a country where wearing a mask is still controversial in some places, that could be a bigger hurdle.—Michelle Fay Cortez | 
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