Group Of Newton Doctors Applaud Newton Schools Testing, But Worry

NEWTON, MA — The group of Newton physicians and scientists who have been pushing for the city to begin surveillance testing at schools amid the pandemic applauded the city's decision to begin testing, but are concerned that unless they're offered once a week they won't effectively prevent a silent outbreak.

"We are worried about the proposed frequency of this testing (once every 2 or 4 weeks)," the group said in a letter to the mayor, superintendent of schools and school committee dated Monday night. "[We] would like to press our city’s leaders to address specifically: what are Newton's actual goals in undertaking this testing?"

To prevent an outbreak at schools, you'd need frequent, repeated, surveillance testing of the majority minimally once per week, they said.

Read more: Newton Public Schools To Offer Free Coronavirus Testing For Staff

The Newton chapter of a group of parent physicians and scientists dubbed "Safer Teachers, Safer Students" has been pushing school Newton to follow the lead of neighboring communities like Wellesley and perform random coronavirus tests on students and faculty to help prevent a potential "silent" outbreak and build confidence in a return to school.

Rapid turn-around-time of results for symptomatic individuals and early detection and surveillance for outbreak prevention are common goals of viral testing they said.

The first goal requires any symptomatic person to have immediate access to testing when symptoms arise, in addition to rapid turnaround of results. Public access to testing difficult to access, they said. The city just opened a new testing spot at the Riverside MBTA, but it's not free or covered by insurance yet.

A downside to providing testing only once or twice a month could be that staff only used the tests when they are worried about subtle symptoms or known exposures, the group said.

"We assume this is not Newton’s goal for this testing," they wrote.

To prevent an outbreak at schools, you'd need frequent, repeated, surveillance testing of the majority minimally once per week, they said. The group said that recommendation was based on the documented average of four to five days for onset of symptoms and the infectivity for asymptomatic spreaders.

The group pointed to the districts such as Wellesley and Waterown doing weekly testing to prevent an outbreak.

"If this is Newton’s goal, then testing staff optionally every two to four weeks will not meet this goal," they wrote.

School districts are working closely with State representatives and vendors to make $10/per person/per tests available by mid-January, the group said at a recent meeting.

Given this timeline, and if Newton’s goal is surveillance for outbreak prevention, they wrote, Newton could use better use funds to focus on weekly testing of a key cohort of teachers, or schools.

The group said Newton could work with other districts such as Salem and Somerville, which are mobilizing their communities toward implementation of weekly teacher surveillance testing, to improve tracking of data in an effort to make them centralized and figure out ways to implement wider-scale, weekly tests from February through the remainder of the school year.

"This is not a long term commitment," they wrote. "It is a short term imperative."

Read also:

• Brookline Teachers Union Pushes For Surveillance COVID Testing
• Coronavirus Drive-Thru Test Site Opens At Riverside MBTA

Jenna Fisher is a news reporter for Patch. Got a tip? She can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna). Have a something you'd like posted on the Patch? Here's how.