COVID-19 Sample Testing Kit, California
date: label: date made
content: ca 2020
label: date made
content: 2020
notes: label: Description
content: On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the COVID-19 outbreak had become a pandemic. In the absence of a vaccine or effective treatment, public health advocates began to recommend “social distancing” (sometimes called “physical distancing”) and many Americans began wearing face masks. Despite these strategies, COVID-19 rates spiked across the country during the spring of 2020.
label: Description
content: Because asymptomatic individuals could unknowingly infect others, public health officials were especially concerned about the role of undetected COVID-19 cases in helping to spread COVID-19. In the summer of 2020, Eva Harris and Lisa Barcellos, members of the newly formed COVID-19 Study Team at the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, initiated a large-scale study to detect the prevalence of asymptomatic COVID-19 cases within the East Bay area of northern California. Postcards soliciting volunteers were sent to over 300,000 households in 12 East Bay cities: Berkeley, Oakland, Piedmont, Emeryville, Albany, El Cerrito, Richmond, San Pablo, El Sobrante, Pinole, Kensington and Hercules. To ensure that volunteers were also drawn from communities of color, researchers sent postcards in Spanish and English. Ultimately, some 7,200 people were selected to participate in Round 1 of the study.
label: Description
content: Christopher Cullender, a senior at the University of California, Berkeley, volunteered and was selected to participate in the study. Cullender was required to test himself for COVID-19 at least every six to eight weeks, over an eight- to ten-month period. To test himself, Cullender was sent several home test kits which he then returned to the University of California, Berkeley.
label: Description
content: Even before the WHO’s declaration, public health officials and researchers had sought to develop an effective test to determine if a patient did, or did not, have COVID-19. The need for testing was especially urgent as asymptomatic individuals could and did unknowingly infect others; additionally, in the absence of effective testing, estimates regarding the size of the outbreak were problematic.
label: Description
content: Following the publication by Chinese scientists of the genetic sequence of SARS-COV-2 in January of 2020, corporations and governments across the world raced to develop an effective test. In the United States, as was true elsewhere, developing an effective test proved especially difficult. One of the most public failures revolved around an early test created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) which produced inconclusive test results. The high-profile nature of this failure undoubtedly spurred scientists at both private corporations and universities to develop their own tests. By the summer of 2020, when Cullender was participating in the UC Berkeley study, test kits had improved dramatically. Still, Cullender was given a variety of different types of test kits; these included nasal and oral swab kits as well as blood test kits to determine if he had had COVID-19 at some time in the past.
label: Description
content: Much to his relief, Cullender tested negative each time he performed the tests. By mid-March of 2021, he had received his second shot of the Moderna vaccine and was no longer participating in the study.
label: Description
content: Cullender was one of millions of Americans who volunteered to participate in either a clinical trial or a large-scale study assessing the spread and impact of COVID-19. In assessing his decision to participate in the study, Cullender summed up the views of many of these Americans. “Being a part of this study,” he said, “helped to counter my feeling of helplessness during the pandemic and enabled me to move from feeling like a potential victim of the virus to a place of empowerment where I was contributing in a small way to the understanding of Covid spread.”
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: general subject association; referenced; used; web subject
content: COVID-19 (Disease)
label: general subject association; used; web subject
content: Health
label: related event
content: COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-2023
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Christopher Cullander
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2021.0173.01
label: catalog number
content: 2021.0173.01
label: accession number
content: 2021.0173
objectType: label: Object Name
content: sample collection kit
label: Object Type
content: Biological Specimen Container
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: cardboard; paper; plastic; metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall (shipping box): 3 1/2 in x 8 3/4 in x 6 1/2 in; 8.89 cm x 22.225 cm x 16.51 cm