Large-Scale, In-House Production of Viral Transport Media To Support SARS-CoV-2 PCR Testing in a Multihospital Health Care Network during the COVID-19 Pandemic

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Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely disrupted worldwide supplies of viral transport media (VTM) due to widespread demand for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) testing. In response to this ongoing shortage, we began production of VTM in-house in support of diagnostic testing in our hospital network. As our diagnostic laboratory was not equipped for reagent production, we took advantage of space and personnel that became available due to closure of the research division of our medical center.

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  1. SciScore for 10.1101/2020.04.29.20085514: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    RandomizationNext, one ml of media from a randomly selected tube in each lot was also plated on chocolate agar.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Finally, a randomly selected tube of media from each lot was tested for its support of SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR testing using the EUA-authorized Abbott RealTime SARS-CoV-2 assay run on the Abbott m2000 platform, the same system used for clinical testing in our healthcare network.
    Abbott
    suggested: (Abbott, RRID:SCR_010477)
    All spiked VTM Ct values were recorded and visualized in aggregate as a Levy-Jennings plot using GraphPad Prism 7.0.
    GraphPad Prism
    suggested: (GraphPad Prism, RRID:SCR_002798)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).


    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Through collaboration between researchers, clinical microbiologists, and support/logistics personnel, we were able to circumvent the limitations of a routine diagnostic laboratory and address a significant bottleneck that would otherwise limit high volume COVID-19 testing capacity.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.


    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.


    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.


    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.