Coronavirus test used by White House has questionable accuracy

CNN — President Donald Trump said part of the reason he doesn’t regularly wear a mask is “everyone’s tested” before they see him. An Abbott spokesperson said the test is delivering reliable results, that the company has delivered 4.3 million ID NOW tests to all states and that the rate of false negative complaints is 0.015%. Ten state health agencies told CNN they specifically recommend or require that individuals who test negative on the Abbott rapid device be retested, and most recommended using a different, slower, more reliable method for diagnosing Covid-19, known as lab-based “polymerase chain reaction” or PCR tests. Other states said they have pointed health care providers to the instructions for the ID NOW posted on the FDA’s website, which state that negative results “should be treated as presumptive,” and if patients show signs and symptoms of the virus, they should then be tested with different authorized tests. He described the test as “a little less sensitive than other tests,” and said, “For that reason, we decided strategically to be less reliant on Abbott ID Now tests as other, more sensitive tests came onto the market.” Dr. Mark Pandori, director of the Nevada State Public Health Laboratory, which receives ID NOW tests from HHS and disperses them in the state, said that while there has been some concern over the test’s quality, other data show the test performs well.