[BostonCard]

More testing news:
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/11...rus-249270

The White House is pushing for 2% of each state's population be tested in the month of May (that's 12.9 million tests over the month, which is weird because the math suggests that 12.9 million is 4% of the population).  Importantly:

To meet that goal, the federal government is providing states with 12.9 million swabs and nearly 10 million tubes of chemicals used to transport samples.

The FDA has authorized Abbott's test to run on a new platform.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-healt...SKBN22N2II

Abbott also said it could have capacity for shipping 60 million antibody tests across the world in June, which included tests on its Architect system, for which it gained authorization last month.

Now the bad news is that the antigen test I mentioned before is not as accurate as PCR.

https://apnews.com/adb76dc11182714e12a4a3a1e33abb3e

The new test is expected to detect about 80% of active COVID-19 infections, according to the FDA. That accuracy rate is similar to other rapid antigen tests for seasonal flu.

“They are going to pick up fewer people that are infected,” said Simner of Johns Hopkins. “So that’s where you see a lot of skepticism around using antigen tests for the diagnosis of COVID-19.″

So, it will be useful in certain settings.  Obviously, if it is positive in the right clinical scenario that can be helpful.  On the other hand, a negative test if a patient has appropriate symptoms should still probably be sent out for PCR testing to confirm it is not a false negative.

BC

[BostonCard]

More testing news:
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/11...rus-249270

The White House is pushing for 2% of each state's population be tested in the month of May (that's 12.9 million tests over the month, which is weird because the math suggests that 12.9 million is 4% of the population).  Importantly:

To meet that goal, the federal government is providing states with 12.9 million swabs and nearly 10 million tubes of chemicals used to transport samples.

The FDA has authorized Abbott's test to run on a new platform.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-healt...SKBN22N2II

Abbott also said it could have capacity for shipping 60 million antibody tests across the world in June, which included tests on its Architect system, for which it gained authorization last month.

Now the bad news is that the antigen test I mentioned before is not as accurate as PCR.

https://apnews.com/adb76dc11182714e12a4a3a1e33abb3e

The new test is expected to detect about 80% of active COVID-19 infections, according to the FDA. That accuracy rate is similar to other rapid antigen tests for seasonal flu.

“They are going to pick up fewer people that are infected,” said Simner of Johns Hopkins. “So that’s where you see a lot of skepticism around using antigen tests for the diagnosis of COVID-19.″

So, it will be useful in certain settings.  Obviously, if it is positive in the right clinical scenario that can be helpful.  On the other hand, a negative test if a patient has appropriate symptoms should still probably be sent out for PCR testing to confirm it is not a false negative.

BC