Defense

Pentagon Researchers Develop Microchip Detecting COVID-19 Under Skin

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The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has developed a microchip that, when inserted underneath the skin, may detect COVID-19 in a patient’s blood.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) operates under the Pentagon and was tasked with taking “pandemics off the table,” retired Colonel Matt Hepburn, who leads the agency’s rapid vaccine effort, told CBS News’ “60 minutes” on Sunday.

Hepburn explained that the implant continuously tests a patient’s blood and could be used to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks, such as the one that occurred on the USS Theodore Roosevelt in April 2020.

“You put it underneath your skin and what that tells you is that there are chemical reactions going on inside the body and that signal means you are going to have symptoms tomorrow,” Dr. Hepburn said. “It is like a ‘check engine’ light.” (RELATED: ‘Invasion Of Bodily Autonomy’: Journalist Glenn Greenwald Rips Proposed Vaccine Passport ‘Caste System’)

DARPA also invented new ways to detect COVID-19 and treat it. The agency created a dialysis machine that helped a military spouse, also known as “Patient 16,” recover from a severe bout of the virus. The machine passes a patient’s blood through a filter, “takes the virus out, and puts the blood back in,” Hepburn told the Sunday program.