After three years and $348 million in federal funding, the University of Illinois’ non-profit organization SHIELD Illinois is shutting down. Federal COVID mandates and emergency resources ended today, May 11th.
SHIELD offered saliva testing for COVID-19. According to their data, more than $7.2 million tests were administered. You can read the impressive story of SHIELD on this website, where there is a lot of data pointing to the program’s effectiveness. Some things I noticed:
- 142,713 positive cases were identified
- 2,208 testing sites
- 325 employees and more than 1,000 contractors
Friendly reminder that science is cool and the COVID is not over, so stay home and / or wear a mask if you’re feeling unwell.
