In May, Dr. Joanne Weidhaas did a webinar and Q&A session with members of our MiraKind community to share how MiraKind was using its available resources to help increase testing availability for Covid19. MiraKind has always believed that knowledge is power, and Dr. Weidhaas realized that knowledge of who has been infected with Covid19 was vital to stopping the spread of the novel coronavirus.
We can do this testing…it became very clear to us that people needed to know if they were sick, and we knew that this was our opportunity to try and help” — Dr. Joanne Weidhaas, MiraKind founder and co-founder of MiraDx.
In this webinar, she discussed:
- Major challenges faced during the onset of the Pandemic in the US
- How there was no precedence and the lack of a plan and coordinated response
- The immediate shortage of medical supplies and infrastructure
- What we knew (and don’t know) about the SARS-CoV-2 virus
- SARS-CoV-2 is a novel type of coronavirus
- Symptoms of Covid19 vary greatly – from asymptomatic to severe (hospitalization and/or death)
- Limited knowledge of time of infectivity – asymptomatic and presymptomatic spread of the virus
- Can be severe for “vulnerable” populations, but can have very adverse affects for younger, healthy individuals also
- Initial testing shortages in the U.S.
- Our nation faced a dire shortage of tests needed to identify individuals who were infected with SARS-CoV-2
- Different types of Covid19 testing
- The MiraDx facility can conduct PCR analysis to test for the virus’s genetic material – this was, and still is, the gold standard for SARS-CoV-2 testing
- How MiraKind and MiraDx are mobilizing to help
- Details on exactly what it took for the CLIA-certified labs at MiraDx to transition from cancer-focused genetic testing to testing for Covid19 infection
We wanted to share this webinar and Q&A session for those in the greater MiraKind Community who may have missed it, in order to keep everyone informed on the work we’ve been doing with our partners at MiraDx.
Now, we’re just all trying to navigate what our new normal looks like during a pandemic. We at MiraKind are excited to refocus our attention back to our mission of providing knowledge and education about how personalized genetics can help empower you to make better health decisions. We’re excited to be able to get back to serving our MiraKind community.
We’ve got some initiatives coming up to help educate and support individuals with head and neck cancer, as well as prostate cancer, and of course, we’ll continue our efforts towards women’s health topics like breast cancer and hormone replacement therapy!
