To question if these tests are accurate?

[TheBeatGoesOn]

Many reports that some are getting a positive test one day and a negative the next. Are we basing decisions on inaccurate information?

They're 99% accurate. So yes some people will get a positive then a negative but not many.

Yes, that is common. I remember early on when the couple that were on a cruise ship in Japan and had to go to hospital and were tested every few days and got different results.

Thats really concerning when we are basing decisions around them

I don't know about now, but near the start it was quite common to get a false negative. It was something like 1 in 5 tests would give a false negative, at least that's what one of our consultants told me.

I don't know if there have been false positives though.

I understand false negatives are around 30%, so in hospitals and care homes if someone with symptoms gets a negative then they assume it’s actually positive and retest.

False positives are less, about 1%.

They are basing decisions on the best information they have and sometimes do more f than one test. Yes it is concerning, but currently the only test we have. There are other measures in place as a safety net such as isolating for 2 weeks even if you get a negative test result.

Tests aren't 100% accurate. It's concerning but what else would you base decisions on? Surely a mostly reliable test is better than just guessing.

No test in medicine is 100% accurate. My understanding is that the false positive rate is pretty low, but the false negative rate is higher. You’re also more likely to get a false negative result if you don’t have symptoms at the time of the test, which is why screening asymptomatic people isn’t necessarily the answer. There are several situations in which you would still need to self isolate even if you have a negative test result: www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/testing-and-tracing/what-your-test-result-means/