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WASHINGTON: A rapid coronavirus test promoted by President Donald Trump and used to evaluate White House officials produces false negatives in almost half of all cases, according to a new study by NYU Langone Health researchers.
The Abbott Laboratories test, which shows positive results in 5 minutes and negative in 13 minutes, was compared with machines that have a response time of 45 minutes.
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The researchers found that the Abbott test produced false negatives about a third of the time when the virus sample taken with a nasal swab was transported in liquid solution, and 48 percent of the time when the swab was dry, which is the recommended method. by the company.
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The results of the study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed and published on a medical prepress site, were questioned by Abbott, who told AFP that it was unclear if the samples were taken correctly.
“Abbott has distributed more than 1.8 million ID NOW tests and the reported false negative rate to Abbott is 0.02 percent,” said Scott Stoffel, a company spokesman.
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He added that another University of Detroit study had found the test to be 98 percent accurate.
The authors of the NYU study said they decided to investigate the test because the speed with which it produced the results was deemed useful to their own institution, particularly the medical center’s emergency department.
In comparison, a Roche test yields results in three and a half hours, while a Cepheid test takes 45 minutes, and both have similar reliability, the study authors said.
These tests look for the genetic material of the virus and use a method that quickly makes copies to amplify an initially small sample to a level that is detectable.
The authors wrote that their study “revealed low sensitivity with high false negative results from the Abbott ID NOW platform,” adding that this raised concerns about “its suitability as a diagnostic tool for symptomatic patients.”
The test received great attention when it received regulatory approval and was presumed by Trump at the White House in late March.
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