From the moment the earliest cases of the coronavirus were detected in the U.S., the ability to test for and track infection rates and cases has been one of the most significant tools in combatting the virus, and played an essential role in developing guidelines and policies to reduce its spread. And today, testing paired with increasing access to vaccines, continues to play an important role in our gradual reopening and return to normal.

To take a look back over the types of testing, their levels of accuracy, how they developed and their impact, I am pleased to welcome my guests for today’s episode, Kimon Drakopoulos and Ramandeep Randhawa, both professors with the department of data sciences and operations, Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. We will be discussing their study, “Why Perfect Tests May Not be Worth Waiting for: Information as a Commodity,” which took place during the pandemic and will be published in the INFORMS journal Management Science.