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Test complexity (sample prep, test workflow) is a real challenge to achieving testing scales at orders of magnitude above what is presently available.

We should hopefully have boring old ELISA antigen tests shortly, thanks to Abbott and many of the other folks we've all heard from. The real challenge is scaling testing beyond what can be reasonably implemented from central lab facilities.

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ELISA tests don’t need to be done at central lab facilities; there are plenty of machines on the market with varying levels of automation (and many already in hospitals, even in ones that aren’t particularly outstanding). I’m curious what barrier to scaling those with COVID (either by making more of these machines, or repurposing other test capacity) you’ve identified that makes bringing a totally new machine to market more attractive, from a scaling perspective.

> The real challenge is scaling testing beyond what can be reasonably implemented from central lab facilities

The SPR machines I’m familiar with are not inexpensive. Are there machines appropriate for these tests that are less expensive such that it could be rolled out widely? Sample cost is low, but a warehouse shift change of several thousand people isn’t going to need only one machine for screening as the load on the machines will be very bursty.

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