President Ferrini-Mundy quoted in articles about UMS partnerships
Mainebiz, the Portland Press Herald, Q 96.1, USA Today and the Associated Press quoted University of Maine and University of Maine at Machias President Joan Ferrini-Mundy about new partnerships between the University of Maine System, The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) and ConvenientMD (CMD) to provide comprehensive COVID-19 testing across all campuses. The President and UMS Chancellor Dannel Malloy announced that CMD will provide “wrap around” services, establishing sites at each UMS university to gather samples and administer and report results. The samples will be tested by JAX for the presence of the virus. The partnership will focus on RT-PCR testing, which is considered one of the most reliable COVID-19 tests. “We know that one of our biggest community health challenges is that asymptomatic people can be transmitting the coronavirus for weeks,” said Ferrini-Mundy, who chairs the UMS Scientific Advisory Board. “Our screening strategies will help us identify and isolate infection.” UMaine assistant professor of microbiology Melissa Maginnis, a virologist who leads the UMS Scientific Advisory Board, also was quoted in news reports. “The coronavirus is especially stealthy and can be transmitted for up to 14 days by carriers who feel healthy and show no signs of infection,” she said. ”The biomedical community is working very hard to develop a vaccine and antiviral treatments for COVID-19 but we may still be several months or more away from a breakthrough.”