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

statnews.com · 1,634 words · saved by 1 readers

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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