Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who tested positive for coronavirus last week, then negative and then negative again, told CNN on Sunday that his roller-coaster ride should not be a reason for people to think “testing is unreliable” if not work. ”
His first test result was positive, as he was screened on Thursday using a rapid test method before President Trump arrived in Ohio for campaign appearances.
Mr. DeWine received an antigen test made by Quidel, one of two companies that have received emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for coronavirus antigen tests.
These tests, although quick and convenient, are known to be less accurate than PCR tests, which were used to determine Mr. DeWine to test twice on Thursday and once again on Saturday. All three PCR tests were negative, confirming that Mr. DeWine was not infected with the virus.
“I do not think the results of DeWine were surprising, per se,” said Andrea Prinzi, a clinical microbiologist and diagnostic researcher at Anschutz Medical Campus in Colorado. “We know that the performance of antigen tests is not as accurate as PCR tests.”
However, the governor of Ohio’s experience may be concerned about how many states will rely on antigen testing, as they try to increase forms of testing, such as PCR, which are too short or have been delayed in laboratory, not in able to generate results in a timely manner to assist in assessing caseloads and dole treatments.
Mr. DeWine, a Republican, is one of seven executives who announced last week that they were working together to buy 3.5 million rapid coronavirus tests, including antigen tests, to increase production.
Daniel Tierney, Mr DeWine’s press secretary, said in an email that the states involved considered “multiple companies and multiple test types” but did not elaborate.
On Sunday, Mr. DeWine said he had already been in contact with Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, a Republican, to talk about the states’ agreement to use their collective ‘purchasing power’ for testing and other supplies.
“If anyone needed an alarm clock with antigens, how careful you should be, we certainly saw that with my test,” Mr DeWine said. “And we will be very careful how we use it.”
A spokesman for Mr Hogan, Michael Ricci, reiterated that sentiment: “We are taking this one step at a time.”
Accurate test results are crucial for limiting the spread of disease. False positions, such as the one that Mr. DeWine has received, can put off an unnecessary period of self-isolation, and people are deciphering access to their workplaces or their own families. False negatives, on the other hand, can accelerate the spread of disease to unconsciously infected people.
PCR tests, such as those used to measure the health status of Mr. Determining DeWine are often the best bet for avoiding wrong results. But these tests are nationwide a short supply because manufacturers and laboratories are struggling to meet the growing demand that has plagued recent toddlers in infections. Results time has been cut short in some parts of the country over the past two weeks, making the information useless for anxious people who need to know their status immediately so they can isolate themselves as needed and stop the virus from spreading further.
“Honestly, PCR tests were not designed for this type of mass screening / testing,” Ms. Prinzi said. PCR tests, they added, work best in laboratory environments that are good with chemicals, high-tech machines and specially trained personnel. Their high-maintenance ingredient lists and relatively high price lists are not very compatible with quickly getting responses from large numbers of people.
Rapid tests, on the other hand, can detect a majority of active infections if they are frequently administered, even if they are less accurate, many experts have argued.
Compared to PCR tests, antigen tests are more likely to return a false negative result, and abuse an infected person as virus-free. Testing by Quidel, for example, can miss up to 20 percent of the cases that detect PCR.
Remarkably, the antigen test produced by Mr. DeWine the opposite error: a false positive that incorrectly indicated he was infected.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Updated August 6, 2020
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Why are bars linked to outbreaks?
- Think about a bar. Alcohol flows. It may be loud, but it’s perfectly intimate, and you often have to pull close to hear your friend. And strangers have way, way less reservations about arriving at people in a bar. That’s kind of the point of a beam. Feeling good and close to strangers. It is therefore no surprise that bars have been linked to outbreaks in several states. Louisiana health officials have linked at least 100 cases of coronavirus to bars in the Tigerland nightlife district of Baton Rouge. Minnesota has 328 recent cases to track around the state. In Idaho, health officials close down bars in Ada County after reporting clusters of infections among young adults who visited several bars in Boise downtown. Drivers in California, Texas and Arizona, where cases of coronavirus have increased, have lined up hundreds of newly opened bars to close. Less than two weeks after Colorado’s bars were re-restricted with limited capacity, Gov. Jared Polis has closed.
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I have antibodies. Am I immune now?
- At the moment, that probably seems like at least several months. There have been horrific accounts of people suffering what appears to be a second bolt of Covid-19. But experts say these patients may have a prolonged course of infection, with the virus taking a slow toll weeks to months after initial exposure. People infected with the coronavirus typically produce immune molecules called antibodies, which are protective proteins made in response to an infection. These antibodies may only last two to three months in the body, which may seem worrying, but that is perfectly normal after an acute infection progresses, said Dr. Michael Mina, an immunologist at Harvard University. It could possibly get the coronavirus back up, but it is highly unlikely that it would be possible in a short window of time from initial infection or the second time safe.
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I am a small business owner. Can I get relief?
- The incentive letters introduced in March offer help to the millions of American small businesses. Those eligible for assistance are non-profit companies and organizations with less than 500 workers, including sole proprietorships, independent contractors and freelancers. Some larger companies in some sectors are also eligible. The assistance provided, which is managed by the Small Business Administration, includes the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Damage Disaster Program. But many people have not yet seen benefits. Even those who have received help are confused: the rules are draconian, and some are stuck on money they do not know how to use. Many small business owners get less than they expected or heard nothing at all.
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What are my rights if I am worried about returning to work?
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What will school look like in September?
- It is unlikely that many schools will return to a normal schedule this fall, requiring grinding online learning, probationary childcare and stunted workdays to continue. California’s two largest public school districts – Los Angeles and San Diego – said on July 13 that instruction will be remote only in the fall, citing concerns that growing coronavirus infections in their areas pose too great a risk to students and teachers. Together, the two districts enroll about 825,000 students. They are the largest in the country to date to abandon plans for even a partial physical return to classes when they reopen in August. For other districts, the solution will not be an all-or-nothing approach. Many systems, including the nation’s largest, New York City, are hybrid plans to spend some days in classrooms and other days online. There is no national policy yet, so check regularly with your municipal school system to see what is happening in your municipality.
But Mr. DeWine might not have been the ideal candidate for an antigen test, said Karissa Culbreath, the scientific director of infectious disease, research and development at TriCore Reference Laboratories in New Mexico. Such tests usually perform better on samples containing high levels of virus, which tend to leave sick patients and people at higher risk of transmitting the infection. If given within the first five days after coronavirus symptoms begin, Quidel’s false negative rate could drop below 5 percent, according to the company’s intended statement.
Mr DeWine, however, had not experienced any symptoms other than a headache.
“If we test outside of that intended use, we can expect false positives as well as false negatives,” said Drs. Culbreath, referring to the five-day window that follows the onset of symptoms.
Assigning tests to people who meet these criteria, they added, will also eliminate the need for scores of follow-up tests, especially while many suspected cases across the country remain undiagnosed.
“Tests are not interchangeable in their usefulness,” said Drs. Culbreath. “We need to look at this as a toolkit and identify the right tool for the job.”
On Sunday, Mr DeWine noted that antigen tests function particularly well as ‘screening’ tests, and they provide faster information to humans, while their results are confirmed – if necessary – by the more accurate PCR tests.
He added that it was companies that develop the tests to demonstrate their accuracy, and that the experience would not limit him from extending tests in his state.
“We could use extra money for testing,” Mr DeWine said. “We have doubled our tests over the past four weeks. We need to double it, and then double it again. ”
Ohio was one of the first states to reopen in May, but as cases raged in mid-June and July, Mr. DeWine signed a statewide mandatory mask mandate and asked several counties to restrict meetings of any size. There have been at least 99,969 cases and 3,668 deaths in Ohio since the beginning of the pandemic, according to a New York Times database.
The status of testing in the United States is far from ideal, Ms. Prinzi said. But for now, it’s time to deal with the materials we have, she said. “We can argue all day about diagnostic accuracy, but this is currently a huge public health crisis,” she added.
Errors and all, antigen testing is “an essential part of our management of the pandemic,” said Dr. Culbreath. “But we have to be very careful about how we use these tests.”
