How accurate are the COVID tests?

I don't trust anything related to any of this. At all.

According to the daily briefings by the Governor to local government they're up to about 80% accuracy.

This sounds correct. I was told at my facility recently that there's a 30% for a false negative. My SO was tested twice and both came back negative, but neither visit could affirm she was covid negative.

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but no one seems concerned with its accuracy.

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IDK where that thought comes from. Accuracy is of significant concern.

There are two categories of tests, those designed to detect virus and tests for antibodies. Accuracy varies by test. For the Viral (PCR) tests, False Negatives are of particular concern. For Antibody tests, False Positives are the concern.

Viral (PCR) tests

• The latest CDC PCR (Virus) test now runs virtually a 0.0% false negative rate. Doesn't get much better than that. It is (finally) the most accurate PCR available.
• The Roche PCR test run a 3.5% false negative rate.
Both CDC and Roche tests require slower turnarounds, often a few days.
• Cepheid's test provides results in less than hour with a 1.8% FNR.
• Abbott's test is popular because it returns results in 15 minutes, but it has a nearly 15% FNR.

Antibody Tests
Several Antibody Tests run >10% false positives. 3 or 4 are at 1% but false negative can be high ~10%

So my neighbor is a nurse at Emory and she said at her hospital they have 40 COVID patients. But she said a number of them are PUI (Patients Under Investigation) which means they haven’t tested positive but have been potentially exposed and they are counted as COVID even though they haven’t tested positive. I mean WTF?!?!??

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What about false positive results?

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Not much of an issue with the PCRs.

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Or is a false negative the same thing?

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No

I think I had CV in March. Took an antibody test and came back negative. I asked the nurse how many tests came back positive. Zero.

I don’t know why anyone would trust the test themselves (or the data associated with them). At this point, this is a massive clusterfrick.

FWIW, I am not a “virus denier,” I just have enough sense not to trust a bureaucracy.

I don’t trust them. In my own family, my grandad tested positive and he’s 90 and not in good health. He showed no symptoms and is completely fine. He only got tested prior to having a small procedure. Everyone else in our family tested negative after being around him the previous few days. He’s had 2 negative tests since.

I know a family of 5 who all got sick at the same time last week with fever and general respiratory problems. 3 of the 5 tested positive. How’s that make any sense?