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I want to talk about the importance of local journalism and how it connects to today's announcement that Millard will be providing on site rapid covid testing in our schools after Thanksgiving Break:
Back in September the @JournalStarNews ran an article by @ChrisDunkerLJS about how some professors at UNL pitched a rapid testing scheme for the coming year ( https://journalstar.com/news/local/education/unl-researchers-pitched-a-rapid-covid-19-test-as-university-signed-on-with-test-nebraska/article_49653e1a-3844-5e8b-9532-f7a731118a32.html). While UNL rejected the proposal, I was very intrigued by the idea using spit based rapid tests.
To me, surveillance scale rapid testing would provide a first line of defense that we've been missing. Checking for symptoms, in my opinion, was inadequate. Teachers had concerns about asymptomatic spread. This seemed viable. So I started digging.
I contacted the professors mentioned in the article. We exchanged emails, and we had a zoom call at one point. They gave me great details, and pointed me in the direction of a school that DID implement on site rapid spit based covid tests: University of Colorado Boulder.
I reviewed UC Boulder's data, REALLY felt good about what I was seeing, and discovered that they had established a commercial arm, Darwin Biosciences, to deploy their testing regimen in other locations. I made contact and arranged for some phone meetings.
After working through the details with Darwin's representative, I asked them to draft a prospective contract to provide on site testing in Millard. I brought the proposal to district leadership, and they were very much onboard.
The district then went to work, building local partnerships and getting the funding we needed to finalize a contract. So starting the Monday after Thanksgiving, we'll be providing up to 1,000 rapid tests a day in our buildings.
This took over a month, but without that @JournalStarNews article by @ChrisDunkerLJS, I never would have known about the UNL plan and I never would've gotten the idea to do this in Millard. We're going to potentially save lives with this testing regime.
Without robust local journalism to tell these stories, this doesn't happen. Period. Make sure you support your local press at all costs. They matter. They influence policy. They make a difference.
