3 ms·
Notably this works on asymptomatic forced coughs. 17% false positive rate but 98.5% true positive rate. Extremely interesting.
by graeme 6y ago
Notably this works on asymptomatic forced coughs. 17% false positive rate but 98.5% true positive rate. Extremely interesting.
- sfink 6y agoThank for pulling out that false positive statistic. It is incredibly irritating when an article, even a press release type one like this, makes it a point to give an exact number for the true positive / false negative rate and then fails to answer the obvious other half of the question. It made me sneer "oh yeah? Well, a magic 8 ball that only ever says 'yes you have covid you're gonna die' would catch that remaining 1.5%; why aren't you doing that?" But as usual, the fault is in the summary, not the research.
- S_A_P 6y agoBased on the title, my first question was "If they are asymptomatic why are they coughing?" I know there are many reasons you can cough, (acid reflux, allergies, etc) but this still seems that if its detectable its not 100% asymptomatic. Im splitting hairs(possibley wrong?), yes, but to me asymptomatic means its completely passive
- adrianmonk 6y agoI had the same thought, but I think it still counts as asymptomatic. Symptomatic and detectable are two different things. For example, it's possible to have early stage breast cancer or colon cancer but have no symptoms (yet). Which is why they do screenings to catch these early.
- colechristensen 6y agoNo they ask you to cough, everyone can do that.
- graeme 6y agoAsymptomatic doesn’t mean unaffected. It means there are no symptoms the patient is aware of and presents with. A large fraction of the asymptomatic cases on the Diamond Princess had pneumomia.
- mbbutler 6y agoThe 17% false positive rate could be a large problem here depending on the prevalence of asymptomatic infection.