Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio Tests Positive, and Then Negative, for Coronavirus

NYT ^ | 08 06 2020 | Sarah Mervosh

[yesthatjallen]

Gov. Mike DeWine tested negative for the coronavirus hours after a positive rapid-result test prevented him from welcoming President Trump to Ohio on Thursday, reflecting the increasingly complex state of testing in the United States.

The whiplash day of contradictory results is a further indication of the country’s limited ability to slow the spread of the virus with widespread and accurate testing.

When Mr. DeWine was first tested on Thursday morning as part of a White House screening, he received an antigen test, a new frontier of testing that allows for results in minutes, not days, but has been shown to be less accurate. The positive result came as a “big surprise,” said Mr. DeWine, who had not been experiencing symptoms other than a headache.

SNIP

[bonehead4freedom]

Bingo!

[Buckeye McFrog]

so.....how reliable are ANY of these tests?

If the test that the Secret Service issues to a man who is about to meet the President can deliver a false positive, how good can one being given by the health department in some rural county in Florida be?

[Wuli]

“When Mr. DeWine was first tested on Thursday morning as part of a White House screening, he received an antigen test, a new frontier of testing that allows for results in minutes, not days, but has been shown to be less accurate.”

That statement comes from the fact that while the antigen test may show a positive result, the PCR test may not.

But the PCR test is also not accurate. It finds bits and after some sampling it uses algorithms to estimate a viral load. BUT sometimes the bits that it found and used were not active viral components, but remnants, left from a defeated infection and sometimes those remnants can be found 12 weeks after the infection has been defeated. THAT fact has contributed to the current “new case” counts.

I would say a positive PCR test with zero symptoms requires repeat PCR tests each week, as long as there is still no symptoms, for up to 13 weeks or until the PCR test is negative, whichever is sooner. If symptoms never develop, the initial positive test was registering remnants of defeated infection, not a “new” positive case.