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A training exercise
At a previous company, the chief scientific officer had built a flu test and offered it to employees to make them feel better. In early 2020 he asked to build a Covid test. He didn't think it would be very useful, but it might make employees feel good and it would be a good training exercise for the team.
Fred Turner, Curative's founder, was running a different plan then: a sepsis pilot at a hospital in Wisconsin. A clinician there had been enthusiastic, until his assistant called to say everything was on hold and he couldn't talk for at least three months. The hospital was shutting down to prepare for its first Covid patient. In mid-February, looking at data, Turner decided that if the trend continued, Covid would be far bigger than people realized.
Finding a lab
The company had the test but no lab, because he had just sold its lab license. People he knew around the Bay Area with licensed facilities didn't want anything Covid related on site. A friend from his Y Combinator batch, who had become a VC, connected him to a group in LA County whose license had been used for sports doping testing. The town was San Dimas, population about 30,000, best known for Bill and Ted.
How can a flu test become a Covid test?
PCR tests detect a virus by amplifying a short stretch of its genetic code using primers matched to that sequence. Chinese scientists published the SARS-CoV-2 genome in January 2020, which let labs design primers for the new virus. A lab already running a PCR workflow for flu can reuse its machines, chemicals, and procedures. The main change is the primer and probe set.
Why did early US Covid testing lag?
The first test kit distributed by the CDC in February 2020 contained a faulty component, which delayed testing in public health labs. At the time, labs also needed FDA emergency authorization before using their own tests. On February 29, 2020, the FDA changed its policy so that labs could start using validated tests while awaiting authorization. Commercial and hospital labs then moved to build capacity.
Why do hospitals pause projects in a crisis?
During a surge, hospitals redirect staff, rooms, and attention to emergency care. Projects without immediate clinical need, such as pilots and software rollouts, are deferred. In spring 2020, many US hospitals also postponed elective procedures to free capacity. The same pause applied to outside vendors working inside the hospital.
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