[RC one]

I work in an ER and spent plenty of time in Covid patient rooms back in wave 1. Not so much anymore though. The problem we were having initially back then was false negatives which was frequently due to poor specimens/poor specimen collection. These people were clearly sick AF but the tests were negative so they increased the sensitivity of the test which basically amounts to turning the magnification up on a microscope. Even recently there has been some disagreement between rapid tests and send off PCR tests. I heard a doctor bitching about it. The PCR test is considered more accurate. The idea that increasing the cycle count somehow turns a negative sample into a positive sample is misleading. The sample was only negative because it was a poor sample, not because the patient didn't have Covid.

I have had people grab my hands when I go to swab them and refuse to allow me to obtain a sample from the nasopharynx as we are supposed to on more than a few times-grown ass adults mind you. With Covid, I was pretty insistent but they would still pull away and make getting a good sample difficult.

[monkeyshine]

I guess the debate still rages... is it is poor sample, or a poor test?

[monkeyshine]

The early tests required some deep digging into the nasal passages. Uncomfortable. The later tests didn’t go so deep. Not sure if or how that is relevant.

[David Chase]

Gotcha.

Thanks for the on the ground input.

Learn something new everyday.