HSU Joins with Public Health to Produce COVID-19 Test Kits

Preparing COVID-19 Test Kits at HSU. [Photo courtesy Humboldt State University]

Preparing COVID-19 Test Kits at HSU. [Photo courtesy Humboldt State University]

Press release from Humboldt State University:

A crew of HSU faculty, staff, and alumni spent a full day in the Department of Biological Sciences preparing 1,250 COVID-19 test kits on Thursday.

As the nation rises to meet the public health demands of the COVID-19 pandemic, the clinical supplies required are in short supply. To help local laboratories service the community, HSU Biological Sciences Chairperson Amy Sprowles collaborated with Humboldt County Public Health Laboratory Manager Jeremy Corrigan (HSU B.S.’04; M.S. ’11)–along with four HSU alumni who work in his lab–and Humboldt State University Clinical Laboratory Scientist Laboratory Lead Judy Tengbom to produce sterile viral transport media for COVID-19 testing kits.

“We are pleased to do a small part in supporting the local health care professionals who are servicing our region,” says Sprowles.

The first 1,250 collection tubes were produced in the microbiology and biotechnology facilities on HSU’s campus by a team that included Microbiology Laboratory Preparator Benjamin Schafer, Core Facility Coordinator Dr. David Baston, Biological Sciences Faculty members Jianmin Zhong and Amy Sprowles, Chemistry Associate Professor Jenny Cappuccio and Wildlife Associate Professor Daniel Barton.

Supplies were donated by the Department of Biological Sciences Stockroom, Core Facility, Chemistry Associate Professor Kimberley White, and Biological Sciences Faculty members Mark Wilson, John Steele, Amy Sprowles and Jacob Varkey.

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Alf
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Alf
4 years ago

Good! Maybe they can help make up for the idiots in the bussing scandal. Hopefully it’s not too late to start being a county asset.

DivideByZero
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DivideByZero
4 years ago

https://youtu.be/UVNlFlkJZyw

Some math, history, and WHO credibility.

Bushytails
Guest
Bushytails
4 years ago
Reply to  DivideByZero

The person in that video says several correct things, but then falls back to quoting some random person as if they were providing hard facts, and finally draws conclusions contradictory to his previous statements. That video is not useful.

The fact that multiple countries have had their health care systems overloaded – and he even mentioned this happening in china in the video – demonstrates that his comparison to h1n1, or his claims that it’s overall no worse than the seasonal flu, can not be correct, since neither of those resulted in overloaded health care systems. Thus, this is substantially worse than either of those, and attempting to dismiss it as similar is incorrect information.

EDIT: Also, to specifically refute his claim that the vast majority of infections are asymptomatic, testing on the Diamond Princess found that only about half of positive results were from asymptomatic patients.

Swine
Guest
Swine
4 years ago
Reply to  Bushytails

Nothing happened during h1n1 cuz the world wasnt obsessed with social media as much amd so easily whipped into a frenzy.

Bushytails
Guest
Bushytails
4 years ago
Reply to  Swine

I’m fairly sure viruses don’t care how much you tweet about them.

My point is that the video claimed in multiple ways that covid-19 and h1n1 were equivalent, while the reality is that h1n1 had only a small impact on health care systems, and covid-19 has already resulted in overloaded health care systems in multiple countries, despite likely being well before its peak in most countries and extensive containment efforts. This makes it quite clear that covid-19 causes far more hospitalizations, and thus is not equivalent.

Glenn Franco Simmons
Guest
3 years ago
Reply to  Swine

This new corona virus is far more communicable than H1N1. Because of that, more people will catch it; many, many more people may die. H1N1 did not spread this fast around the world, nor, when this is over, did H1N1 kill as many people worldwide as this new corona virus may kill. Recommended reading: WHO (despite its obvious failings); CDC (despite its obvious failings); NIH (despite its obvious failings); The Lancet and other medical and/or science journals. Also suggested reading: The numerous research papers coming out of China that compare the viruses’ virility and lethality. Google can be a wonderful thing.

Great work, HSU. Shows how valuable HSU is to the Humboldt community. It’s an asset, especially in a pandemic.

Thirdeye
Guest
Thirdeye
4 years ago
Reply to  DivideByZero

The COVIDIOTS never stop trying to rationalize complacency, even now.

The Real Brian
Guest
The Real Brian
4 years ago

That is good news for the community.

FanOfGuest
Guest
FanOfGuest
4 years ago
Reply to  The Real Brian

Not really Brian. We are a week behind all numbers posted. At this point 50% of the United States is infected. All of this is too late. All of this should have been done 2 months ago. No one respects the shelter in place orders and all we can really do is ride this out. Virus is winning and running hits course. It will take literally YEARS to test everyone, pointless. This is only a drop in a 20,000 gallon tank. Good luck. I’ll take my chances. 1-100 chance of dying….. not bad odds.

Martin
Guest
Martin
4 years ago

A big thank you to the HSU team for producing the 1,250 sterile viral kits for sending away COVID-19 testing kits. I hope you can produce more if needed.

FanOfGuest
Guest
FanOfGuest
4 years ago
Reply to  Martin

You know there’s 150,000 people in humboldt alone right? Tick tock tick tock. We are taking 1 step foword and 100 steps backwards. Every week the virus literally doubles with us not even knowing it.

Mike
Guest
Mike
4 years ago

Why don’t they ask for some donations to be able to make a shit ton so it could actually be useful?

For sure
Guest
For sure
4 years ago
Reply to  Mike

Population of Humboldt-around 137,000. Maybe 50% of us could donate enough $ to get as many test kits as we need . It’s important to try to get accurate numbers @ how many real cases are positive. The only accurate number in the overall statistics is the death number. Unless the real(ish) number of real cases is known, there’s no way to truly assess the ratio of deaths to cases. There’s a large gap between worst case- 2% , and best case- .5-.05.
Is there a way to keep these test kits coming? What about a ppe volunteer group? Would full length, lightweight raincoats/ ponchos be a safe start? The Dollar store used to sell rain ponchos. Years ago, I bought a couple to keep in my car…haven’t looked for them in a few years. Very lightweight.

Thirdeye
Guest
Thirdeye
4 years ago
Reply to  For sure

Unfortunately, plastic surfaces are among those with longer COVID-19 survival times. A plastic coat might keep the bug off your clothes over the short term, but immediate disinfection would be absolutely necessary before bringing one into a “clean” area.

Guest 707
Guest
Guest 707
4 years ago

Kudos to the team @ HSU!
👍

Bushytails
Guest
Bushytails
3 years ago

Probably not going to make it up here first, and 50,000 tests a day is going to be less than our daily growth in a couple days…

Doggo the commie
Guest
Doggo the commie
3 years ago

40,000 monday, 115,000 saturday.
200,000 + by next monday, 1,000,000 by next friday
My estimation.

Willie Bray
Guest
3 years ago

🕯🌳Ask South Korea? They test 19,000 people a day,so were did they get all of there test kits? There only 1/4 the size of California about a little larger than Humboldt. 🖖🐸🕯

crimestopper2
Guest
crimestopper2
3 years ago

The creation of all these test kits is a wonderful statement made by the Humboldt State University’s members.
We truly need an effective close location for the final testing and results to be processed and reported.
The bottleneck is processing-how can Frankostein make that happen? We’ll listen to her babble tomorrow night at 630pm on Channel 11