Test Used By WH Might Miss Half Of Positive Cases

Yahoo News reports:

A coronavirus test touted by President Trump and used at the White House may miss nearly half of positive cases, according to a study by New York University. The study looked at Abbott Laboratories’ ID Now molecular COVID-19 rapid test, which Trump hailed as a “whole new ballgame” at a March 30 news briefing because it boasted of delivering positive results in as little as five minutes.

But the NYU researchers concluded that when testing swabs were stored before use in a stabilizing solution, the Abbott test missed at least one-third of positive results that were found using a different, more time-consuming procedure. Last month, responding to concerns about false negative results, Abbott changed its protocol to recommend using dry nasal swabs. But the researchers concluded that actually increased the rate of false negatives to 48 percent.

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The White House is choosing to continue using a rapid test that another study shows misses a lot of positive covid cases. The test is used to determine whether people can get close to the president https://t.co/voKziR8xMb

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) May 13, 2020