What the White House Epidemic has taught us about fast Covid tests
President Trump and several members of his inner circle have now been tested positive for coronavirus.
The revelation that the presidentDonald Trump CONTRACT COVID dominated the press cycle, as well as the subsequent diagnoses of several leading Republican officials in Trump's internal circle, including the first ladyMELANIA TRUMP, former counselor of the White HouseKellyanne ConwayTop acidHickes HicksTrump campaign managerBill Stepien. Several of these cases seem to have drawn from the White House Rose Garden Event commemorating the appointment ofAmy Coney Barrett At the Supreme Court, and they questioned the federal government's protocol for the prevention of coronavirus, including the use of rapid Covid tests.
AsWall Street newspaper Reports, the White House hasIndicated on fast covidation tests Among employees and visitors to mitigate the spread of the virus in their ranks. Significantly, officials have often avoided masks and other social distancing measures, assuming that negative test results were sufficient reason for ignoring other COVID protection protocols.
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Cornfalse negatives are a possibility with any coronavirus test and fast Covid tests are less accurate. The Abbott identification test now, that the White House used in advance of the September 26 event, would have a 91% sensitivity, suggesting that up to 9% of the negative results could be wrong negatives,Wall Street newspaper reports.
"What seems to have been fundamentally misunderstood in all this was that they used it almost as if you would implement a metal detector"Ashish jha, Dean of the University of Public Health from Brown University, told the newspaper. "A metal detector that is missing 10% of weapons - you have never said that this is our only protective layer for the president."
Rapid Covid tests can be an effective tool for diagnosing active coronavirus infections, but according toThe New York Times, the White House wasDo not use the Abbott Identifier test now correctly. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has published an emergency authorization for the test for use by health care providers "in the first seven days of symptoms". In fact, in infected patients but who do not exercise yetSymptoms of COVIDThe test may lack a positive case in three.
One of the main lessons of the White House infections is not only fast covid tests are useless, but that fast tests alone are not sufficient protection against coronavirus transmission. The Pink Garden event "is a good example of why this approach has no success"Saskia Popescu, an infectious epidemiologist of George Mason University, saidWall Street newspaper. Even those who have tested negative shouldmasks and maintain the social distance as much as possible. And for more information on the current condition of the President,These are all Covid Trump treatments have tried.