In January 2020, before there were any known cases of COVID transmission on US shores, Seattle researchers who had been collecting nasal swabs for a flu study realized that they could use those swabs to find out whether the virus was circulating in their area. But federal and state officials repeatedly rejected their requests for permission to do so. The subjects hadn’t consented to any use of their samples other than for the flu study, so the officials were certainly technically correct. After weeks of trying, out of desperation, one of the researchers tested the swabs anyway. She found COVID
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