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Rapid tests should not be used for mass screening. This is clearly stated by Franco Locatelli, president of the Higher Council of Health and can also be read in a WHO document. However, in Italy they have been distributed for airport checks.
“Rapid antigen tests should be reserved for diagnostic confirmations rather than for contact tracing policies and not for mass screening policies,” says Franco Locatelli, the president of the Higher Health Council. Antigen testing should not be used for mass screening. We are talking about the so-called quick swabs, those that work like a pregnancy test and give the result in less than 30 minutes and that in our country are used, just to cite an example, in airports, precisely for the purpose of mass screening. . In short, let’s do what the president of the Higher Health Council clearly advises not to do: mass detection with quick swabs.
WHO and FDA
These are useful tests but with lower reliability rates (sometimes much lower) than classical molecular swabs. The debate over the efficacy of quick swabs divides the scientific world and not all countries use them. In the United States, the tests can only be used in the presence of acute symptoms and a negative result cannot be considered definitive. The World Health Organization is also very clear, explaining in a document that these tests should not be used at airports and borders for mass screening, but only within restricted communities where there are already confirmed outbreaks.
The case of Lazio
The difference between using them or not using them can also be seen in these numbers that we cite as an example. In the Lazio region, the ratio between infected and the number of buffers manufactured is approximately 12% if we count the results of rapid and molecular buffers. But if we look at the same proportion calculated only on the basis of the molecular swab, the percentage of infected increases a lot, up to a more alarming 33.9%. The region is the same, as is the absolute number of positives. But the panorama of the situation changes depending on the buffers we consider.
