Page 8 - Antigen Tests News Today

Confusion here. what kind of test is best to know if youre still contagious after that five-day period? >> good evening, david. thanks for having me back. the first five days after you test positive is the most important to isolate. thats when people are most contagious. the test thats useful after five days is one of those rapid antigen tests and what we know is that its a very good test for picking up contagiousness and if you have two of those that are negative, very, very good information th...

Factors into that piece of the new guidance. we know this administration is concerned and on do that of this situation with the shortage of tests. president biden himself hughes repeatedly acknowledged they have fallen short on this. i asked jeff zients today what is the process of getting those test to say americans. he told me theyre still in the process of finalizing the contract for that test. that contract will not be finalized until late next week, so i dont think you can expect americans ...

Missed. >> yeah, and look, to be clear, as i noted, biden has gotten testing to a better place than it was when he and ron klain in 2020 were criticizing trump for it. but we are not at the point, as klain promised about the biden plan that all americans have access to regular, reliable and free testing. were not there, period. >> no, were not, and i dont think that its even been explained that well, the value of testing. instead, again, its been minimized but the idea, jake, people talk about t...

Categories of tests, and in each of those categories theres a bunch of manufacturers, a bunch of different ways you can do the tests. its all awfully complicated for the average american to figure out. >> reporter: over-the-counter at home tests from these manufacturers are now authorized by the fda. experts say they all work well. >> in general for the purposes that most people are using tests today, which is to ask am i a risk to others around me, the rapid tests you can pick up on the shelf t...

That is not explained and is most concerning. second, what theyre saying is just not true. on one hand were being told that the president and the country is precuring all these rapid tests that are going to help us, but on the other hand were being told theyre not going to. to fact is most of us believe if were going to have to this five day you should have a rapid antigen that is a quality rapid antigen test, and i must highlight then. to then be able to show youre not shedding the virus. thats...

Fda was saying the tests are no longer good. they say theyre less sensitive now. they never were 100% sensitive. some of the tests have a diminution further of the sensitivity, but they still say the tests are useful and should be used. >> okay, a diminution of the sensitivity. does that mean that the at-home rapid tests work to detect omicron or not? >> well, they do and they dont in the sense that if you are symptomatic, most of the antigen tests are pretty good. if youre having covid symptoms...

After testing positive for covid-19. there are still 31% of people, roughly, that are still contagious on day five. it goes down to 5% by day ten. point is that this is confusing. um, that is -- theres quite possibly going to be a lot of people -- up to a third of people who are still contagious, and many of them may not test. and to give you a little bit of context, in the uk, for example, they looked at the same data and said people should isolate for at least seven days and have two negative ...

Obviously a lot of focus on inhome tests today, these are antigen tests, there are some interesting research going on about the ability to make pcr tests available at home, and theres companies all over the country, including one in connecticut, that, you know, believe that with some additional investment, to bring those tests to scale, we could get pcr tests into families hands at home, for a cost that is at or below what were currently charging or companies are currently charging for antigen t...

Originally we hear from the cdc director on the "today" show this morning, she confirmed that this morning saying its not as effective picking up omicron as it was the delta or alpha variant but saying that the pcr test should be the reliable test for folks to take. thats why were here at the site where youre seeing lines -- not yet but seeing lines across the city as that testing front continues, not just here in illinois but across the country. >> doctor, lines, lines everywhere but theres als...

Its transmissible, if you can show that there really is live replication virus in you. and the tests dont measure that. they measure the presence or absence of the virus. and the virus could be dead, inactive virus that doesnt transmit. son its entirely understandab why people get confused over that, so thats why i try to explain it to people, to hopefully clarify that. >> yeah, i certainly appreciate that. im sure a lot of people do as well. i know this is anecdotal, my whole family recently ca...