4/24 Questions

4/24 Questions

by Megumi Shirasaki -

As long as a test has a false positive/negative rate of less than 50%, would it be possible to negate the false results by conducting the tests multiple times? The result that appears the most would be the correct one. This would of course require that there are enough resources.

How do scientists calculate the false positive/negative rate? Is it possible to do so without the data that comes from releasing it to the public?

Re: 4/24 Questions

by Barbara Christie-Pope -

Yes, usually multiple tests are run to confirm.  But you are correct, resources are lacking to do this.

the study done to determine the false negative rate of the rapid test for the virus did side-by-side comparisons between the longer test and the rapid one and found that the rapid one had a high rate of false negatives.  

The public should know how tests work and the rate of false reports.