Brian HoweyThis story was part of coverage that won the 35th SPJ NorCal Excellence in Journalism Award, Print/Online Small Division.
San Francisco turned down a research startup’s offer to test all of the city’s homeless shelter residents for COVID-19, urging the firm to divert its resources to other populations, according to interviews, emails and documents outlining the proposal.
Color, a Burlingame genetic research company, was set to start testing residents at two homeless shelters on April 22. Shelter leaders and organizers had lined up doctors and volunteers to perform the testing, which Color claimed it could complete for San Francisco’s entire shelter population in 12 days. The company had drafted a letter of understanding, which the Public Press reviewed, outlining the plans. Then representatives from the company stopped replying to calls and emails from the administrators and advocates.
A Color representative emailed one of those contacts on April 28 to say that after discussions with the health department, the company had shifted its focus to higher priority populations, such as nursing homes, in order to follow health department directives.
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