Scientists try to pinpoint why rapid Covid tests are missing some cases

Scientists are trying to determine why rapid Covid tests are missing cases, many of them of the Omicron variant, and what can be done about it.

M arianna Parker, a Boston-area pediatrician, wanted to make sure she, her husband, and her toddler didn’t have Covid-19 when they developed a nasty cold around Dec. 18. Over the course of a week she used five Covid rapid tests and took three PCR tests, testing negative. Her husband tested negative on a rapid test on his second day of infection but positive on his sixth, a result that was confirmed via PCR. “If he hadn’t decided to do that random test on day 6 we would never have known,” she said. Nevertheless, she’s convinced all three of them had Covid, and that the tests simply produced the

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