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The Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) is again the subject of controversy, with several medical school applicants testing positive for COVID-19 from 2 to 7 days after taking the in-person exam.

"As test-takers return home positive for COVID-19 and cases continue to spike across the country, it becomes increasingly urgent that the AAMC [Association of American Medical Colleges] take action and urge schools to adopt policies that do not discriminate against students who feel they cannot safely take or retake the exam this summer," a group of medical school applicants known as Students for Ethical Admissions (SEA) wrote last week in an , which runs the MCAT. "As the maker of this exam, it is the AAMC's duty to speed up this process and do what is right by its students."

Social Distancing Measures Criticized

The SEA letter came after the group received reports that three students who recently took their MCAT had tested positive for COVID-19. "Two of these cases occurred in the Pacific Northwest, while the third occurred in a student who traveled from one Western state to another because their originally scheduled exam had been cancelled last minute and the nearest available test was a 6-hour drive away." That third student also reported that two family members tested positive for the coronavirus.

"According to the timelines of these confirmed cases, these students have the potential to have either transmitted OR contracted the virus at the testing center," according to SEA, which said all three of these students reported inadequate social distancing measures at their test center.

In addition, "one student on our most recent survey admitted to attending their exam despite onset of symptoms (loss of taste and/or smell and shortness of breath) two days prior," the letter said. "This student has not yet been tested. We also received a private message on Twitter from a student who was considering doing the same thing for fear of not being able to reschedule."

The letter was referring to an SEA survey of 66 students who took the in-person MCAT. In total, 36 students reported no screening for COVID-19 at their test center; 19 said they had been asked about recent symptoms, while 14 said they were questioned about exposure to the virus. Ten test-takers reported questions about recent travel; three said they underwent a temperature check.

AAMC Responds

Karen Mitchell, PhD, the AAMC's senior director of the MCAT program, told 番茄社区app via email that her organization "is absolutely concerned about the possibility of MCAT examinees transmitted [sic] or contracting COVID-19 at test centers, which is why we have, in the past, canceled exams where we concluded the risk was too high. If we were to conclude that our safety measures were insufficient to contain risk, we would act upon those conclusions."

"The safety and health of our test takers is our top priority," she continued. "We developed our health and safety standards for the 2020 testing year alongside Pearson VUE [the AAMC's testing center contractor], in consultation with epidemiology and immunology experts, and following evidence-based CDC guidelines. We developed a comprehensive set of safety protocols that layer on top of one another, so that a mistake by one person (e.g., a test taker removing a mask at a workstation or neglecting to wash their hands) is compensated by other measures (e.g., social distancing, cleaning of workstations between users, and precautions against symptomatic people entering the testing center)."

Mitchell added, "We have no confirmed cases of transmission at an MCAT test center, however, we encourage any examinee who observes non-compliance with any safety protocol or who has developed symptoms after the MCAT exam to contact us at mcatsafety@aamc.org with their AAMC ID number and when they tested so that we can follow up with our testing partner with reports about that test center."

"Examinees should not appear in person to take the MCAT exam if they have existing symptoms or believe they may have been exposed to COVID," she said. "Examinees are able to reschedule and should know that admissions officers will continue to be flexible with their timelines and accept scores from students who are taking the exam later in the cycle."

Additional Concerns

COVID-19 is not the only reason that examinees are concerned. On Saturday, students who were supposed to take an exam in downtown Portland, Oregon -- the site of large demonstrations following the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police -- were told at 3:30 p.m. that their 6:00 p.m. exam was canceled. Video posted by a journalist showed tear gas being used later that evening within a few hundred feet of the building's front door, according to an SEA member. Also over the weekend, an MCAT exam in California was canceled due to a power outage.

SEA asserted that applicants were afraid to report problems they were experiencing due to fear of retaliation. "If students feel unable to speak out about problems they have experienced, how will those problems be accurately addressed?" the group's letter stated. "In order to encourage transparency between the AAMC and its students, we ask that the AAMC issue a statement ensuring that students cannot be penalized for speaking out regarding their issues with scheduling, being granted accommodations, their experiences taking the MCAT, and their conversations with support specialists," among other issues.

The SEA group and AAMC previously went back and forth about several issues regarding the medical school application process. At first, the concerns were mostly limited to those revolving around having to take the MCAT in person during the pandemic, and applicants having to reschedule their MCATs after the pandemic forced AAMC to cancel exams in March, April, and most of May. Later, applicants' concerns expanded to include difficulties getting transcripts processed as well as the impersonal nature of a one-way video interview tool called the Video Interview Tool for Admissions, which AAMC is offering to medical schools.

In late June, SEA members released a detailing their concerns, and AAMC responded with a . The association said it would continue to offer the MCAT exam solely in person. "We considered if and how we could implement remote testing and concluded that it is not a viable option for the MCAT exam as it will not allow us to ensure fairness and equity for everyone and protect the integrity of the exam," the posting said. "It was a tough choice to make, but we still think it was the right one."

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