I definitely think there's a communication deficiency or breakdown happening, because none of the medical professionals indicated to me that the rapid tests were that unreliable when it comes to producing false negatives. I also feel personally guilty for not having been as well-informed as I should have been. I'm just glad I experienced a tell-tale symptom (loss of smell/taste) and was able to act on it before boarding a plane.
Another interesting aspect of this is that prior to experiencing loss of smell/taste, I was more or less told by urgent care staff that I didn't have COVID, and they were pretty resistant to testing me -- hence I only got rapid tests. Yet I actually was right in the midst of an active case.
> Are they just flat out missing some infections, or do they require a much higher viral load to indicate positive?
they do require a higher viral load than the pcr test to accurately show infection. the pcr test studies have shown to be 0-30% false negative later in the illness after symptoms have shown (when there are fewer antigens in the body). both the pcr and the rapid tests are expected to have a near 0% false positive rate though with most false positives being lab contamination or mishandling. even if the test is 50% false negative(not the actual number) it would still drastically slow the spread of the virus coupled with other measures. This is more of a defense in depth instead of a firewall; the swiss cheese layers of threat reduction.
That's true, but in this case the converse statement is also true that someone with a positive rapid test should start isolating even if symptoms are absent. It's this latter statement that you were replying to.
> because none of the medical professionals indicated to me that the rapid tests were that unreliable when it comes to producing false negatives.
You're being very emphatic about this, but all you've described is that the rapid test failed in a single case (you). We expect a lot more failure than that from the slow test! Where is the idea coming from that you experienced egregious unreliability?
Well, he did take two rapid tests, which both produced false negatives.
What this tells us about false negatives depends on details he didn't mention, about how correlated the two tests were. Obviously, it was the same person each time - but was it the same day? Same test brand? Same clinic? Same tester?
I've had 2 nasal swab tests. The first one seemed to have taken a core sample of my eyeball or brain; the second one was not as bad. I have no idea if these were rapid tests or googles PCR tests. Messaging is poor for sure.
I can't count the number of communication breakdowns any more with Covid. Apparently to get any number of people on the same page about something is not possible. Even with the internet. Blame it on information overload, or perhaps apathy.
I hope when Biden takes office he does daily Covid briefings where they disseminate accurate knowledge which would include correcting previous things we thought we knew. I know democrats that actually watched the Trump briefings because there were actually intelligent people behind half the info. I think many people tuned out the moment he recommended injecting bleach - but there was still value in the briefings. It was something that I know a LOT of people actually paid attention to.
> I think many people tuned out the moment he recommended injecting bleach - but there was still value in the briefings. It was something that I know a LOT of people actually paid attention to.
This is an interesting comment re:communications and the messaging that reaches people. Trump did not recommend injecting bleach. He went on a rambling mostly incoherent recollection of a conversation he had where he was trying to learn what was being done. He was trying to sound smart.
His comments were all questions to the med experts. "Is there a way we can do something like that?" "Are we going to check on that?"
Yet everyone jumped on it saying he "claims" or "recommended". And it became "truth" because news articles covering the press conference used phrases like "claims" and "recommended".
> "So I asked Bill a question some of you are thinking of if you're into that world, which I find to be pretty interesting. So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether its ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said, that hasn't been checked but you're gonna test it. And then I said, supposing it brought the light inside the body, which you can either do either through the skin or some other way, and I think you said you're gonna test that too, sounds interesting. And I then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute, and is there a way you can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning? Because you see it (COVID19) gets in the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it'd be interesting to check that. So you're going to have to use medical doctors, but it sounds interesting to me, so we'll see. But the whole concept of the light, the way it goes in one minute, that's pretty powerful."
Presumably, Trump had been briefed about all of these things before giving the "inject bleach" press conference. The press conference is not the time to be asking questions you just thought about of medical experts. Not if you are the one giving the press conference at least. That is where the messaging fell apart.
Especially with the internet. In the 80s the main media outlets reported the page and almost everyone followed. The internet now has a million “experts” for every actual expert, and even good opinions can doffer depending how you look at the facts.
Another interesting aspect of this is that prior to experiencing loss of smell/taste, I was more or less told by urgent care staff that I didn't have COVID, and they were pretty resistant to testing me -- hence I only got rapid tests. Yet I actually was right in the midst of an active case.