Lab Matters Winter 2025 | Page 13

FEATURE

Michael Perry, DrPH, MEd, director of the biodefense laboratory at the New York State Department of Health Wadsworth Center, remembers the February 2020 day when he encountered the state’ s first SARS-CoV-2 specimen.

The virology laboratory asked Perry’ s team to look at a concerning specimen that came in.“ By the next week, our whole group was pulled in to help with increased specimen numbers,” he said.

Perry’ s mind ran through a catalog of questions— do we have an assay to detect this? What safety precautions and procedures will we need? How will we assess risk? What is the right level of information to provide for something we know so little about?