A sign advertising a rapid coronavirus test on the new Abbott ID Now machine at a ProHEALTH center in Brooklyn, New York, on August 27. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images

A new testing strategy prioritizes infectiousness instead of infections.

To get the US pandemic under control, a growing number of health and medical experts are making a clarion call for an additional testing approach to Covid-19.

What we need, they argue, are at-home rapid tests that look for antigens, proteins the live virus makes. These kits would allow anyone to test themselves for the coronavirus any time (and anywhere) for between $1 and $5, and get results in about 15 minutes. No doctors, labs, expensive machines, or special chemicals required.

“I see these [antigen] tests as a solution that’s literally sitting in front of us,” says Michael Mina, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan