4 ms·
Rapid antigen tests have a relatively high rate of false negatives.
by tchalla 5y ago
Rapid antigen tests have a relatively high rate of false negatives.
- rebuilder 5y agoI know someone who just got a positive PCR test and still got two negatives on at-home test kits.
- headsoup 5y agoI think you mean false positives? Or are they just bad all-round?
- gattilorenz 5y agoNo, false negatives: you're tested as negative but you, in fact, have the virus. This is common for rapid antigen tests, and especially so if self administered. False positives are not tipically a problem for this kind of tests. It's like the pregnancy test: if you see the stripe, you're very, very likely pregnant. If you don't see it, you can't rule it out with the same certainty.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- hugh-avherald 5y agoRelatively high yes, but with emphasis on the relatively; I would be surprised that there would have been more than 3 false negatives.
- cygx 5y agoNote that one of the issues with rapid tests is that they only work reliably once you become symptomatic - however, you may already be infectious about two days before that...
- lps41 5y agoAnd only the one person returning from South Africa would have needed to actually be a false negative. The rest may have been true negatives.