It’s August and many colleges and universities continue to pivot or weigh the risk that come with re-opening this fall, during a pandemic. Without a vaccine, most infectious disease experts say that a plan to test every few days for COVID-19 is the safest way for institutions to bring their students back to campus. But it’s also a costly venture that few of them say they can afford to provide, among them are historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
On Wednesday, Thermo Fisher Scientific, the world’s largest maker of scientific tools, announced a project to support testing, at no-cost, to the nation’s HBCUs, including establishing national HBCU testing centers to process COVID-19 tests and provide timely results throughout the academic year.
Through an initiative called “The Just Project,” named after pioneering cell biologist Ernest Everett Just who served on the Howard University faculty for more than three decades, Thermo Fisher plans to donate $15 million in diagnostic instruments, test kits and related supplies. The multi-billion-dollar company will also provide technical assistance to HBCUs that want to establish or expand their laboratories to provide regular on-campus COVID-19 testing. Five HBCUs—Howard University, Morehouse School of Medicine, Meharry Medical College, Xavier University of Louisiana and Hampton University—will be the first to receive donations. Their laboratories, along with those at other Black colleges and universities, will obtain samples on their campuses. Then samples will be collected from HBCUs and shipped to their assigned testing center. Over the next few weeks, more institutions are expected to join the project as national testing hubs. These campus labs can be operational “as early as next week,” said Fred Lowery, senior vice president and president, Life Sciences Solutions and Laboratory Products at Thermo Fisher.
With a new and uncertain fall semester already underway for many HBCU campuses, Lowery said he continues to spread the word about The Just Project and the access it provides to COVID-19 testing for populations who have been hard hit by the pandemic and the coronavirus.
“HBCU presidents have been incredibly supportive,” he said, and so far, “about 30% have shown interest.”
Dr. James E.K. Hildreth, the president and CEO of Meharry Medical School in Nashville, Tenn., said he has been fielding calls and speaking with fellow HBCU presidents about the testing opportunity that could save them thousands of dollars and help mitigate an outbreak.
“I anticipate that buy-in will grow,” Hildreth said. Early in the pandemic, he pushed to bring free COVID-19 testing to overlooked communities of color in Nashville that were most at risk for contracting the virus. Now, he said that reach will include all HBCUs and provide a training ground for his students long after COVID-19.
