Coronavirus test used by WH might be wrong half the time, researchers claim

A coronavirus test touted by President Trump and used at the White House may miss nearly half of positive cases, according to a study by New York University.

The study looked at Abbott Laboratories’ ID Now molecular COVID-19 rapid test, which Trump hailed as a “whole new ballgame” at a March 30 news briefing because it boasted of delivering positive results in as little as five minutes. But the NYU researchers concluded that when testing swabs were stored before use in a stabilizing solution, the Abbott test missed at least one-third of positive results that were found using a different, more time-consuming procedure, the Cepheid Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2 test. Last month, responding to concerns about false negative results, Abbott changed its protocol to recommend using dry nasal swabs, rather than storing them in a solution that could dilute the samples.

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But the researchers concluded that actually increased the rate of false negatives to 48 percent…

Reached by Yahoo News for comment on the study’s findings, Abbott Laboratories said it was “unclear if the samples were tested correctly.”

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