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World famous entrepreneur and inventor Elon Musk had himself tested for the novel coronavirus four times on Friday. Half of the tests came back negative; the other half came back positive.
Something extremely bogus is going on. Was tested for covid four times today. Two tests came back negative, two came back positive. Same machine, same test, same nurse. Rapid antigen test from BD.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 13, 2020
"Something extremely bogus is going on. Was tested for covid four times today. Two tests came back negative, two came back positive. Same machine, same test, same nurse. Rapid antigen test from BD."
Perhaps this news isn't as surprising as it reads at first. The rapid antigen tests are quickly becoming notorious for the amount of false positives they give, which, according to many critics, are disproportionately high and bordering on not useful.
If you had the PCR test, that’s not surprising. It was never designed to test for anything. It’s designed to produce measurable amounts of RNA material starting from individual fragments. The more iterations of the reaction, the more material & therefore “positives” you get.
— ccJoe (@ccJoe91133993) November 13, 2020
According to the FDA, the odds of getting a false positive actually go up as the prevalence of the disease lessens with this type of test, due to its very nature. The FDA's website indicates that one can expect 20 percent false positives in a population where 10 percent of the people actually have the disease, and if that prevalence goes down to 1 percent, the amount of false positives will actually increase to 70% percent.
It is felt by many that the actual nature of these tests and how they relate to the virus are often misunderstood, even by government officials.
Musk, on his part, has pledged to get more than one PCR from separate labs:
If it’s happening to me, it’s happening to others. I’m getting PCR tests from separate labs. Results will take about 24 hours.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 13, 2020
A PCR, or polymer chain reaction, test is considered to be much more reliable, and is typically the sort of test required for things like international travel.
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