Blood Sample Mass Surveillance

This pandemic has made it clear that disease surveillance is too slow.
 
Instead of relying on a patchwork of health providers to report unusual events, what if anywhere that collects blood could be on the lookout for unusual antibodies?
 
That’s the aim of the Global Immunological Observatory, a pilot project seeking funding to eventually test some 100,000 samples every day in the US alone, according to Harvard's Michael Mina.
 
The process would involve substantially scaling up existing chip-based technologies that can identify hundreds of thousands of antibodies. There are considerable logistical challenges, but the project shows “the kind of fresh new thinking we need in public health,” says infectious disease specialist William Schaffner.
 
Science