Curative tests raise concerns among Samo students

By Grace Gyepes, Staff Writer

As of Jan. 29, many restrictions on Santa Monica and the rest of Los Angeles County were lifted. With outdoor dining, restaurants and stores reopening, COVID-19 testing has become increasingly popular. Alongside new developments in regards to testing and vaccines, more and more concerns are arising—one of the biggest being Curative testing. 

The FDA first approved the Curative test for emergency testing only, and to only be administered by healthcare workers. However as healthcare workers grew sparse, the testing became less supervised. The test quickly became popular among civilians and government officials due to the fact that it is far more comfortable, and free in LA no matter one’s insurance status. Instead of a nasal swab, Curative tests use saliva swabs, but many health care workers are skeptical about Curative testing. 

“My dad won’t let me get Curative tests, he’s a respiratory therapist at UCLA. He doesn’t think they work properly, or give back the correct results. I’ve only gotten nasally tested,” Ellenor Brandt (’23) said.

In early April of 2020, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti made COVID-19 testing fully available to anyone, regardless of symptoms, against the CDC’s recommendation. On Jan. 4, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned that many Curative tests produce false negatives. The FDA announced that Curative tests should only be administered to symptomatic individuals. 

“[The FDA] is alerting patients and health care providers of the risk of false results, particularly false negative results, with the Curative SARS-Cov-2 test,” the FDA said in a statement that can be found on their website (www.fda.org). 

Garcetti responded to the FDA’s warning in a news conference on Jan.7. He retracted his past statement saying that Curative testing is only designed for people who are visibly ill, or symptomatic patients. The announcements by both the FDA and Garcetti have raised concerns throughout the Samo community.

“My dance studio opened up a couple of weeks ago, we have to get tested every two weeks. Prior to last week, we used Curative tests. It really worries me knowing that many of those results could have easily been false negatives,” Avery Smith (’23) said.

As the pandemic prevails, Los Angeles has become the country's epicenter. The city makes up for one third of all cases in California and as of Feb. 3 there are 91,462 cases. 

Curative testing is slowly on the decline as the FDA continues to research more about false negatives. Slowly, testing centers are closing with only 32 remaining in LA County. Many testing places have banned the tests due to the recent study of false negatives.