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Rapid Covid tests miss 90% of asymptomatic cases

nature.com

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Re: Rapid Covid tests miss 90% of asymptomatic cases

#51

Post by ben_w »

euix wrote: post #43
blagie wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

.... maybe .... It depends on the purpose of the test. For example, a trillion dollar question is still long covid. Very significant numbers of people are on disability right now. About 10% of Americans have some form of long covid, and >1% are unable to work due to long covid (or >2% of the workforce). Long covid comes up even with mild and asymptomatic cases, and seems to have a strong autoimmune component. If you'…

Can long covid be considered post-viral fatigue? I remember being knocked out with Mononucleosis years ago and being tired out for over a month afterwards. Or is long Covid something entirely different?

Last I heard — massive caveats that was a while ago, and I'm not medically trained so I don't have a useful anti-BS filter for anything medical — is that it does seem to be a form of post viral fatigue/ME/CFS.

Re: Rapid Covid tests miss 90% of asymptomatic cases

#52

Post by thakoppno »

throwawaaarrgh wrote: post #13

40-50% of cases are asymptomatic, so the tests are still good at confirming if a symptom is COVID-19. By taking 3 tests over time the odds of detection are better. But almost everyone has stopped wearing masks, so for those people, testing is pointless anyway. It would be like putting a lock on your own firearm, and then wandering naked across a firing range.

Masking, to me now, has become an indicator of recent infection.

Re: Rapid Covid tests miss 90% of asymptomatic cases

#53

Post by thenerdhead »

The only time I tested positive was being asymptomatic when my kids showed symptoms. When I actually got it with symptoms, I never tested positive. I’d do a antibody test shortly after showing I did though.

I am not surprised by this finding. I would also think the opposite(symptomatic) has a significant figure too. Sadly I can’t find an archive of the entire article to read more.

Re: Rapid Covid tests miss 90% of asymptomatic cases

#54

Post by zoklet-enjoyer »

Both times I had COVID I didn't test positive until it was already apparent from symptoms that I was positive. In both instances I knew I had been in close contact and it was likely that I was going to get sick, so I started testing 1 to 2 days before symptoms appeared.

Re: Rapid Covid tests miss 90% of asymptomatic cases

#55

Post by BoxFour »

tinco wrote: post #27
BoxFour wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, it appears that this is somewhat redundant. A majority, if not all, of the rapid tests I have used explicitly caution against taking one in the absence of symptoms, as it is expected to yield negligible results.

I got stuck in the United States, was not allowed to fly back home until I got a negative result on a rapid test. It still took a week to test negative after I'd been symptom free.

Regrettably, there are individuals who exhibit evident symptoms yet would gladly travel and deceive on a simple questionnaire.

That might explain why governments adopt a blanket rapid test approach irrespective of the potential for false positives (even given the potential, as the article alludes to, for false negatives).

Re: Rapid Covid tests miss 90% of asymptomatic cases

#57

Post by gwittel »

rlpb wrote: post #42

What I think really matters for most people is not to find out whether they have covid or not, but whether they are infectious or not. I'd really like to see research (any at all!) into how effective different test methods are at predicting infectiousness and am disappointed that this never seems to get addressed. Because who cares if you're asymptomatic but your viral load is low and you're unlikely to infect others…

I was looking at [1] recently to understand omicron variant positivity length and they cite a few other papers. The article [1] is publicly available. I haven’t checked if all of the others are.

* Routsias JG , Mavrouli M , Tsoplou P , Dioikitopoulou K , Tsakris A . Diagnostic performance of rapid antigen tests (RATs) for SARS-CoV-2 and their efficacy in monitoring the infectiousness of COVID-19 patients. Sci Rep. 2021;11(1):22863. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-02197-z

* Currie DW , Shah MM , Salvatore PP , et al; CDC COVID-19 Response Epidemiology Field Studies Team. Relationship of SARS-CoV-2 antigen and reverse transcription PCR positivity for viral cultures. Emerg Infect Dis. 2022;28(3):717-720. doi:10.3201/eid2803.211747

* Korenkov M , Poopalasingam N , Madler M , et al. Evaluation of a rapid antigen test to detect SARS-CoV-2 infection and identify potentially infectious individuals. J Clin Microbiol. 2021;59(9):e0089621. doi:10.1128/JCM.00896-21

* Killingley B , Mann A , Kalinova M , et al. Safety, tolerability and viral kinetics during SARS-CoV-2 human challenge in young adults. Nat Med. 2022;28:1031-1041. doi:10.1038/s41591-022-01780-9

[1] COVID-19 Symptoms and Duration of Rapid Antigen Test Positivity at a Community Testing and Surveillance Site During Pre-Delta, Delta, and Omicron BA.1 Periods. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle...

Re: Rapid Covid tests miss 90% of asymptomatic cases

#58

Post by jonnycomputer »

willcipriano wrote: post #28

My pet theory is the vaccine is good at creating populations that have asymptomatic and subclinical experiences with the disease and that probably contributes to spread because otherwise those people would've stayed home if they were sicker. This seems to confirm that it even does this to the rapid tests.

I think this seems reasonable. The initial hope (well, at least my initial hope) was that the vaccine would significantly reduce transmission to the point at which the virus might be extirpated; but we were quickly disabused of that notion. Nonetheless, once people were vaccinated, they stopped wearing masks or staying home, and so the virus spread more freely. That said, other things are responsible for the huge resurgence in the virus after the first wave. First and foremostly, the virus mutated to evade both the original vaccine and to just become more transmissible. But it also became less deadly, and without morgues filling up like they did in the first wave, and vaccines readily available, and a lot of people with acquired immunity through infection, people made the largely rational decision to get on with their lives. Of course, for some people particularly vulnerable, this was not a good thing, but then, again, the isolation was particularly horrific for a lot of people (like my aunt stuck in a convalescent home, did not see family for almost a year, and then afterwards, only very sporadically, until a couple of days before she died in the ER)

Re: Rapid Covid tests miss 90% of asymptomatic cases

#59

Post by worldsavior »

blagie wrote: post #37
worldsavior wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (This is a question, not a statement) It's just funny that you have to mention this is a question even if a question mark exists. It shows how much toxic people got instead of understanding others.

I actually think it's the opposite. There is a hyper-polite culture in the west where people tone down statements: - It's [X] - Have you considered it might be [X]? - Is it possible it might be [X]? - ... The goal is to not appear overly assertive / confident / arrogant. Once that happens, people start to read subtexts into questions, and all of a sudden, you need disclaimers. I like direct communications, so I find…

What you're mentioning is good and reasonable criticism. This is not what I'm talking about.

You don't have to mention anything and be afraid of what people might say because you don't want toxic behavior towards you.

People need to stop. Read, understand, conclude and write. This is basic communication.

Re: Rapid Covid tests miss 90% of asymptomatic cases

#60

Post by zoklet-enjoyer »

jnovek wrote: post #48
euix wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can long covid be considered post-viral fatigue? I remember being knocked out with Mononucleosis years ago and being tired out for over a month afterwards. Or is long Covid something entirely different?

A cursory google suggests that post-viral fatigue from COVID is expected to last a few weeks. Long COVID can last months; I know at least one person who still has long COVID symptoms from an infection that occurred in April 2020.

Have they tried paxlovid?
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