the 1st copy didn't copy all Matt's points Replying to...

the 1st copy didn't copy all Matt's points


Replying to
@MattSanderson__
2/ "Widespread testing for SARS–CoV–2, the virus that causes COVID19, is critical to knowing if, when and how people can start to return to their normal lives. An antigen test for the coronavirus could be a huge help in expanding testing."







3/ "What is an antigen? - The human immune system, and in fact the immune systems of most vertebrates, work on a simple idea: Any protein in your body that isn’t encoded by your own genes is probably from a pathogen and should be captured and destroyed."




4/ "When the immune system detects a foreign protein, your white blood cells, specifically your B-cells, create antibodies to trap and destroy these proteins. The foreign protein that triggers this process is referred to as an “anti–gen” because it is an antibody generator."


5/ "How does an antigen test work? Antigen tests are well named They look for antigens To identify these antigens, antigen tests use antibodies. Like the test that diagnoses influenza, the SARS–CoV–2 antigen test uses antibodies that are produced in animals to hunt for proteins"



6/ "embedded in the coronavirus’s surface. If the antibodies detect viral proteins in a sample, the person most likely has the coronavirus."





7/ "What are the strengths of antigen tests? The main selling points of antigen tests are that they are far faster and easier to perform than (PCR) tests and are currently the most common way to test for an active SARS-CoV-2 infection and can take up to four days to perform"




8/ "A COVID-19 antigen test might take only 15-30 minutes to complete and requires very little expertise. In contrast, PCR tests swabs must be sent to diagnostic laboratories to be performed by experienced technicians as of right now"





9/ "What are the weaknesses? What antigen tests gain in speed and ease of use, they lose in accuracy. Because they look directly for evidence of the virus, there need to be a lot virus proteins available to stick to the antibodies to produce a detectable result."



10/ "If a sample doesn’t have enough virus or a person has a low-grade infection, the test might give a false negative result – and a sick person would get told they are uninfected."





11/ "Quidel reports that their antigen test produces about a 20% false negative rate. That means that 1 in 5 people who actually are infected will receive a result saying they are not. At a large scale, this may result in missing many infected individuals."




12/ "A COVID-19 antigen test can fill an important gap in the testing landscape by providing fast diagnoses in the clinic, but they’re not perfect. Because of the somewhat high false negative rate, individual patients should be careful with how they interpret the results."