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Listen: At-home COVID-19 tests explained in time for holiday gatherings

Nate Hafer, PhD, associate professor of molecular medicine, and Apurv Soni, MD, PhD’21, assistant professor of medicine and co-chair of the Program in Digital Medicine, explain how at-home COVID-19 tests work and how to use them to prepare for holiday gatherings in a new Voices of UMass Chan podcast.

Drs. Hafer and Soni answer common questions about the antigen tests, such as whether they detect new variants, when should you test and how often, and what it means if you’re testing negative despite having symptoms.

“The work that we’ve done at UMass Chan is really impacting the way that testing advice is given nationally,” said Hafer.

Hafer and Soni co-led the RADx Tech Clinical Studies Core Logistics Team, which contributed to the Food and Drug Administration’s guidance on the use of rapid COVID-19 tests. National publications such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have reported on the team’s research.

To learn more about the research and to better understand how to use antigen tests, listen to the full podcast episode: umassmed.edu/voices.

Be sure to listen to every episode by subscribing through SoundCloud, Apple Podcast, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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