TEST A TETE

FDA Stops Coronavirus Research Program Backed by Bill Gates

The Seattle Coronavirus Assessment Network enjoyed widespread support, but the FDA halted it.

The Food and Drug Administration has ordered a widely supported COVID-19 testing program in Seattle to cease operations, The New York Times reports. “Please discontinue patient testing and return of diagnostic results to patients until proper authorization is obtained,” FDA officials wrote to the Seattle Coronavirus Assessment Network (SCAN). The agency said the program, which was operating with state authorization, would now have to seek approval on the federal level. The initiative grew out of a partnership between scientific research groups in Seattle and the King County Department of Public Health that sent home coronavirus tests to both healthy and sick people to establish a baseline database of how many people were infected with the new coronavirus. Billionaire Bill Gates wrote glowingly of the program earlier this week.