Wellness4Humanity: When Biotechnology Meets Retail

Wellness4Humanity is a full-service biotechnology company launched by Lian Nguyen Pham and Pavel Stuchlik and other partners providing safe, reliable COVID-19 testing with F.D.A. Emergency Use Authorization. The company’s rapid antigen at-home test provides results in 15 minutes and has a 97.4% accuracy and 100% specificity. The company’s saliva RT-PCT test has a 99% accuracy.

Originally operating out of Houston, Texas, Wellness4Humanity (W4H) is now opening retail locations across the country’s major cities. Wellness4Humanity also plans on branching out even further. At these testing locations, there will be scheduled in-person testing and proprietary contactless vending machines selling at-home test kits.

Partnering with Swyft Inc Software and Technology, Wellness4Humanity has been able to produce these convenient and necessary vending machines. The purpose of these machines is solely for easy access to COVID-19 tests for the public. Additionally, Wellness4Humanity equips each vending machine with a contactless purchase method through a mobile device.

As approved COVID-19 vaccines slowly become available to the public, it’s a fact that a substantial portion of the general population will continue to refuse vaccination. Frequent and reliable testing for COVID-19 will remain critical into the future. Wellness4Humanity is working to make safe, reliable, painless at-home testing affordable and convenient with the nationwide roll-out of their secure vending machines. Opening to the public in February, One EDM took a visit to the soft open of New York City’s Herald Square flagship location to sit and talk with co-owner Pavel Stuchlik.

Why create this? What is the goal for Welness4Humanity and the placement of multiple vending machines throughout some of the nation’s major cities?

Wellness4Humanity: Well it didn’t start off as vending machines, that came to us very secondary. It was around March of last year where we literally had an option to either bankrupt our companies including my DJ career or figure out a way how to be proactive and actually make a difference in the world. So the whole idea started with a group of impact entrepreneurs trying to be part of the movement of how can we come back to normality. We started off with simple COVID testing in Houston, TX and then we grew into multiple locations around the country. After that, we figured a way to do our sales online so anyone can buy it anywhere but it still wasn’t quick enough. So we came to the conclusion to introduce vending machines to increase accessibility.

So there are two kinds of tests the public can take, the rapid antigen and RT-PCR saliva tests. What differences in results do they give?

It all depends on the customer’s need and based on that, we suggest different types of tests. The saliva PCR is very handy for travelers with test results within 48 hours while the rapid antigen provides instant results. The TRUSTPASS™ app which is a verification and tracking system provides customers with their test results. It also has a patient portal where people can track their results throughout the series of testing.

When it comes to false positives test results, fragments of the virus on a nasal swab is not necessarily representative of an active infection or transmissibility. How accurate are these two W4H tests compared to the old brain scraping technique?

One really important thing to understand about these tests compared to the brain scraping is technique. So if you look at the efficiency, it’s about 70% accurate (brain scraping). That is because if the practitioner doesn’t go deep enough, the results aren’t accurate. With our saliva tests, all you have to do is spit into a cup and the result will be 99 % accurate because it is an RNA-based test, while the antigen is 97.4 % accurate. Each test looks for an active virus but in a different form.

In regards to false positives with any type of COVID test, is it unreasonable to say that there will be a percentage of people who test positive that do not actually have the disease?

There is always that chance but its a very slim chance. Our tests have 0% false negative and a small percent of false positives around 1%.

Then there are false negatives. If someone has symptoms but the test comes back negative we assume that the test is wrong and we tell them to quarantine whether they have COVID or not. Could we be exaggerating the prevalence of the disease and our response to it to some extent based on fear?

Well our protocol is that we always lead with antigen, if the antigen shows positive then we retest with the antigen one more time to make sure it wasn’t a false positive. If the results are postive again we confirm it with the PCR. That is the protocol before doing events and or corporate gatherings .

How is this flagship store intended or expected to operate when it’s fully open to the public in February?

Essentially this Herald Square location will be our hub in New York City. It has two floors and a basement. The basement will be where our nurses are deployed to people’s homes if they do not wish to come in. The first floor will be for regularly scheduled customers and the second floor will be for corporate customers. For example, if you’re a business office and you need to clear your employees weekly before they come to work, your business will be able to do it here on the second floor.

What is the expectation in the number of tests being sold within lets say the next three months?

We expect anywhere from 5,000-10,000 tests a month.

Did you try to get Federal funding? Was there any available to you? How did you make this possible?

My partners and I all come from very successful entrepreneur backgrounds so Wellness4Humanity is self-funded. We are currently seeking investors so we can bring this to thousands of locations.

The TRUSTPASS™ logo has the words Test, Verify, and Track in it. What is the significance of each of these words?

The “Test” represents Wellness4Humanity because we always begin there. The “Verify” represents the technology, and “Track” is part of the patient portal where you can track where and when you been tested with each result in a centralized database.

Can we expect to see W4H begin placing their proprietary vending machines internationally?

We are already in talks for it. We are looking at multiple opportunities in many different countries.

Does Wellness4Humanity offer any information on the disease, test kits, and vaccine on their website?

We have all the FDA Emergency Use Authorization-authorized details in regards to our test kits online. We haven’t decided on yet whether or not we will distrubte vaccines but it is something that our company is considering.

Can the public purchase a test from a vending machine through their insurance or is it all out of pocket?

It is out of pocket first but if you are insured you will be provided with the codes to get a refund. You just have to make sure your provider covers COVID testing.

What do you have to say about 2020 the year of COVID? How would you comment on it?

As an artist, it was probably one of the biggest lows but as an entrepreneur, it was one of the biggest challenges. It was a very interesting point for humanity which is why we started the movement “Spread Love Not COVID” which is a series of events rolling out across the country. After all that has happened, we are hoping to recreate that sense of love and unity through this event series. If you would like to know more about Wellness4Humanity and find a location near you please visit here.