User:CWBoast/COV-UIUC-extended

Extended usage of the saliva test
In August, 2020 the University of Illinois had a strategy for expanding use of the test outside of CLIA-certified labs, based on an understanding that the UIUC test could receive, via a "bridging" study, FDA's Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) under the umbrella of Yale University's SalivaDirect test. However, because the UIUC saliva test differed significantly from the Yale test, this strategy was found to be insufficient and a study was undertaken to directly qualify the test for use under the FDA's EUA process.The test was authorized by FDA's EUA process on February 24, 2021.

Meanwhile the University of Illinois developed a system, named SHIELD T3, for extending the saliva test to a wider range of users. By Spring 2021, a number of universities adopted this for use, even before FDA authorization, by using their own CLIA-certified labs; these included the University of Notre Dame, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the University of Maine and the University of Wyoming. In addition, it was adopted by Bloom Energy to implement COVID-19 testing for businesses and individuals in the San Francisco South Bay area.

Following the February 24, 2021 FDA authorization, the university cooperated with OSF HealthCare to begin offering the test to employees of Champaign County and to students in local schools, both elementary and high school. In addition, members of UIUC student and staff households could receive saliva testing, for payment of $10 per test. At greater distance, four Washington, D.C.-area universities, Gallaudet, American, Catholic and Marymount, as well Baltimore high schools have begun SHIELD testing, and testing began at a variety of private and public universities and Community Colleges  in Illinois. Based on the UIUC testing system's advantages, including its relatively low cost, the University of Illinois is exploring the potential for this system to be adopted much more widely within Illinois, or even as "a major player in the national coronavirus-tech industry" according to Mark Konkol. On the other hand, Konkol cautions that the Shield T3 public-private parternership could be seen as cashing in on "a global crisis in the name of the public good."