Insider Q&A: NIH official on testing for infectiousness

By MATTHEW PERRONE
AP Health Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. health official suggests there may never be a test to measure whether someone who had COVID-19 is still infectious. Dr. Bruce Tromberg is in charge of fixing the country’s long-troubled COVID-19 testing system. His division at the National Institutes of Health controls $1.5 billion in federal funding intended to rapidly expand and advance testing. The initiative has funded dozens of companies that have increased U.S. testing capacity by more than 1 billion tests. Tromberg says infectiousness is a complex question influenced by vaccination status, behavior and setting. He says it’s unrealistic to think that tests can be the final word.