Behind the scenes of the rush to create mass Covid testing programs overnight
Jon R. Cohen, MD, led Covid testing for New York's first drive-through testing sites, the NBA Bubble at Disney World, the NFL, the MLS, Royal Caribbean cruise lines, New York City Public Schools, and many others while performing the most COVID-19 tests of any lab in the country. As CEO and executive chairman of BioReference Laboratories, Cohen and his team, along with heads of private healthcare companies and labs across the country, stepped into the leadership void left by the US government and CDC to help the general public at the height of the pandemic.
Swab is the story of how Cohen and his thousands of courageous and intrepid teammates worked around the clock for two years to create bespoke Covid mass testing programs literally overnight at scale from scratch-all this despite the CDC having no coordinated testing plan and being no help to the private leaders who stepped up. Swab offers leadership lessons and reflections from the front lines against the battle against Covid and offers a gameplan for America to manage the next pandemic.
Swab is the first book to tell the full story of COVID-19 testing and an important component in the historic record of a once-in-a-century pandemic. It is a testimonial to the strength of our health care professionals, a lesson in decision-making for leaders, and a visceral, relatable read for anyone who felt a cotton swab almost reach their brain while taking a Covid-19 test.
