Surveillance Testing Proves Successful, Exceeds Initial Thoughts

Once Marist confirmed that students and faculty would return to campus for Fall 2020, one major concern emerged: how will Marist plan to test their students? The answer was surveillance testing. 

From the time campus shut down last March up until last week, Dr. Alicia Slater, Dean of the School of Science, has been working closely with Erin McLaughlin P.A., Medical Director Steve A. Katz M.D and Melissa Schickie D.O., Director of Health Services, to implement COVID-19 testing at Marist. By utilizing their in-house knowledge and connections to other health professionals in New York, Marist has been working to receive the most up-to-date information about the pandemic. 

For symptomatic individuals, Marist has the capability to test using the traditional nasal cavity method. For routine testing, Marist opted for the ‘pooling’ method, which according to the CDC, is a process that involves “combining respiratory samples from several people and conducting one laboratory test on the combined pool of samples.” After providing individual samples, the test is combined with 11 other’s, to ensure the greatest number of people are being tested most efficiently. 

The results can come back in as little as 24 hours. If anyone in the group tests positive, the SUNY Upstate Medical Center, where Marist’s tests are processed, can flag the infected individuals and instruct the other members of the group accordingly. The test also detects those who are asymptomatic, which are individuals that are not showing symptoms of the virus, but are still able to spread it. 

As for the ‘randomized’ aspect of the testing, Slater’s team devised a plan. In conjunction with the Marist Institute for Public Opinion (MIPO), Slater and her team created a system that selects random students for testing. Each day, a different dorm will be called for testing, and the system also mixes up the floors to get the most varied pool of students with accurate statistics. 

With my first impression of the surveillance testing protocol, I thought there was a lack of effort by Marist to test the community more often. However, gaining more knowledge of the process made me think differently and showed everything Marist is doing behind the scenes. 

In an email to students on August 28, Vice President of Student Affairs, Deborah Dicaprio praised the program by applauding its ability to “monitor the success of our policies in place to prevent COVID-19 spread, and also allow us to react quickly to respond as needed.” Dicaprio also said, “We all recognize the necessity of making adjustments as we monitor COVID-19 infection on our campus and in our local community.”

Dicaprio was right — to stay on campus, we must make adjustments, and surveillance testing is one of them. So far, Marist has succeeded in preventing the COVID-19 spread and we have fortunately not been able to see the extent of what Slater and her team can do. Once Slater explained the process, I felt a sense of restored confidence in the college’s ability to keep students safe. The simple yet effective protocols Marist has enacted, aim to keep everyone on campus safe. Even if something happens, Slater and her team are fully equipped to #protectthepack.

The McCann Center has been used for surveillance testing, a new aspect of the Marist experience this semester. Source: Sarah Lynch