{"id":199,"date":"2020-09-16T00:53:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-16T00:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/?p=199"},"modified":"2020-11-09T00:59:42","modified_gmt":"2020-11-09T00:59:42","slug":"are-rapid-tests-are-useful-even-if-not-always-accurate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/?p=199","title":{"rendered":"Are rapid tests useful, even if not always accurate?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"2a4c\"><strong>Question:<\/strong>&nbsp;I just got a text from an urgent care provider saying they are now offering \u201cFDA authorized Covid-19 Rapid Testing, results in 15\u201320 minutes!\u201d I\u2019ve read previously that rapid tests can give a significant number of false positives and false negatives. Do you have current information to provide on this, and also any guidance on whether or not the rapid tests are useful even if not always accurate?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"814d\"><strong>Answer:&nbsp;<\/strong>I think the test your urgent care provider is referring to is the new&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/abbott.mediaroom.com\/2020-08-26-Abbotts-Fast-5-15-Minute-Easy-to-Use-COVID-19-Antigen-Test-Receives-FDA-Emergency-Use-Authorization-Mobile-App-Displays-Test-Results-to-Help-Our-Return-to-Daily-Life-Ramping-Production-to-50-Million-Tests-a-Month\">Abbott BinaxNow antigen test<\/a>, which&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/news-events\/press-announcements\/covid-19-update-fda-authorizes-first-diagnostic-test-where-results-can-be-read-directly-testing-card\">received FDA emergency use authorization<\/a>&nbsp;in late August. We discussed different test types most recently in our&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@madeleinefabic\/covid-19-questions-and-answers-updated-daily-part-2-6c6708931c29\">Q&amp;A of 9\/4<\/a>&nbsp;#Test Types, and the table shared in that post provides an overview of the three test types \u2014 molecular (e.g. PCR), antigen, and antibody. Overall, antigen tests are a great addition to our testing menu because they:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Are inexpensive (ex: Abbott is selling its new test for $5)<\/li><li>Are simple for healthcare workers to use (ex: the Abbott test is the size of a credit card and requires no additional equipment like an analyzer)<\/li><li>Provide results quickly (ex: new Abbott test provides results in 15 minutes)<\/li><li>Are designed to detect active SARS-CoV-2 infection<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"1ca6\">In short, these new antigen tests allow us to make COVID-19 testing more widely available, with results provided more quickly than traditional molecular\/PCR testing (yay!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"cc32\">But it\u2019s not all sunshine \u2014 you\u2019re right to remember that different tests also have drawbacks. For antigen testing, positive results are generally very accurate (e.g. if the test tells you you\u2019re positive, you\u2019re really positive), but negative results are not as accurate (e.g. a negative antigen test cannot rule out active infection). Re-stated, with antigen tests, you\u2019re unlikely to get a false positive, but there\u2019s some chance of a false negative (and for a refresh on sensitivity\/specificity see&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@madeleinefabic\/covid-19-questions-and-answers-ee65d2f749e7\">Q&amp;A of 4\/15<\/a>&nbsp;#Sensitivity). So if you and\/or your healthcare provider believe that you may be infected with SARS-CoV-2 and an antigen test comes back negative, you\u2019ll need to have a molecular\/PCR test too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question:&nbsp;I just got a text from an urgent care provider saying they are now offering \u201cFDA authorized Covid-19 Rapid Testing, results in 15\u201320 minutes!\u201d I\u2019ve read previously that rapid tests can give a significant number of false positives and false negatives. Do you have current information to provide on this, and also any guidance on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,10,27],"class_list":["post-199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-testing","tag-antigen-tests","tag-false-positive","tag-rapid-tests","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covidqanda.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/September-16.jpg?fit=275%2C183&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=199"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":202,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199\/revisions\/202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}