PCR-tests can find tiniest remnants of the virus for a long, long time. It's like finding fingerprints and acting like the thief is still in the house! Remember all those scary, sensationalist stories about "re-infections"? Many were likely PCR picking up RNA remnants for months.
-
-
Show this thread
-
As an individual diagnostic test at a point in time, PCR's ability to find every last virus bit might be useful but as a public-health screening tool, what we want is mass, cheap, rapid turnaround (immediate!) *and* a signal only when it matters—high likelihood of infectiousness.
Show this thread -
Just like masks, there is a misunderstanding of what rapid tests like this are good for. They're key usefulness is to protect *others* from the infectious person, which in turn protects everyone by creating a public good: a less-infectious world. Stop calling them less accurate.
Show this thread -
Yep. Temperature checks are pandemic theater for the most part and given the substantial role of a/presymptomatic transmission, symptom checks are a band-aid, if that. Daily immediate screening tests like this would be *for real* useful for screening.https://twitter.com/jordanfrank/status/1294295174647091203 …
Show this thread -
These are *NOT* mediocre though. Once we frame them correctly, THEY ARE BETTER for what we are trying to do. For public health purposes, PCR tests are mediocre. A positive signal that lasts for weeks (PCR) is not as useful; and they are expensive and slow.https://twitter.com/luke_fernandez/status/1294295139402149888 …
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
Even very smart people struggle a lot with understanding probabilistic results or reasoning, unfortunately.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
Need a whole movement around this...
#Tests4All is the next#Masks4All. -
If I understand this article correctly, these paper strip tests don't have the false positive concerns of eg the rapid tests used by the White House? That's even better.
- Show replies
New conversation -
-
-
If these tests are effective, how on earth are we not using them yet?? Insanity
-
No leadership.
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.