Abbott's $5 Rapid AntiGen Test FDA Approved
 

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...ation-n1238409

Size of a credit card, no additional gear needed. Uses less invasive nasal swab.

Could you theoretically put these at every airport around the country? Show the gate agent the test result on your phone during boarding? Probably too many hoops to jump through, but sounds like a good idea in my head.

I wonder what the sensitivity/specificity numbers are.

Yeah that's the potential issue... false positives.

Those are OK in a clinical setting where you just use a better test to confirm a positive, but a high false positive rate would be bad at the gate.

Thought news reported around 95% accurate

it appears this must be doing "via your healthcare provider" and is not an at-home test.

So how does this concept work in actual real world reality.

Is the traveling public expected to buy these and get an appointment at their doctor to get tested? How long are the results good for? If I was negative COVID today can I travel next week?

etc

XpresSpa is rolling it out the Abbott test in JFK and EWR next month, with more airports to come later. So maybe that’s a preview for what’s in store. I’m sure all the airlines are working behind the scenes to coordinate this test and other tests that’ll soon get FDA approval. We’ll see I guess.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/seeking...irport-testing

95% accurate in what way?

5% false negative is probably just fine in this context, since there will be very, very few true positives to begin with, so 5% of a very small number slipping through is not going be a catastrophe (especially with enhanced sanitation and social distancing).

5% false positive is a bit much. People will not be happy if they buy a ticket and then get turned away because the TSA says they have covid when they don't. 10,000 pax/day = 500 sent home erroneously.

You'd need a pretty high specificity to not alienate your customers.

Hard to tell from news report what the % is referencing.

But as I was told when tested with existing process....'we have many false negatives with this test. So you can have it and still get a negative result."

This new test will have to be field tested with actual people to develop the legitimate base of effectiveness i suppose.

I don't see how this is any more of a hoop than regular security and couldn't be incorporated in the normal screening. TSA is already $5 one way, so adding another $5-$10 and a few more minutes to security is completely acceptable, considering we're moving a fraction of people we used to. I guess if you pop positive you take the test again, considering statistically one or two people would get inaccurate results on each flight. This could really help us.

All makes sense.

They might need a second, more specific and possibly more expensive and time-consuming test to filter false positives

Good to have inexpensive, rapid tests.

Of you have a five percent Faldo positive rate then that’s 7 people a 737 that get denied boarding.

Sure would be. I doubt the news reporters understand the difference between 5% false positives and 5% false negatives.

When an airport rolls it out, I suspect there will be a medical shop set up with a more accurate test. Might delay someone until the next flight.

This is 100% a bad take. You want to scrap a program that potentially intercepts 19 positives because there's a chance it might flag 1 person in error? Those 19 that are intercepted are kept off the plane which prevents spread not only on the plane, but also at their destinations.

In addition, a rapid COVID test on boarding would be an immediate confidence boost and would bring the flying public back.

I'm always surprised that someone can be so consistently wrong so often.

Exactly. Do you think the airlines care about upsetting people with masks and their “personal freedoms?” Nope, they need confidence back. And if a small percentage of people get denied boarding because of a false positive airport test, while catching the many true positives, that’s a win for the airlines. Confidence is the path to recovery; have we not learned this with airlines now adapting a “we don’t care why you can’t wear a mask, no mask, no flight, or we ban you”. This is brought to you by the same airlines who would let a miniature horse and a peacock have sex and then crap all over the plane, fearing a lawsuit from the ADA if they said something.

Times have changed.

I don't think the Federal Gov't, State gov't, the TSA or airlines can force anyone to take a test... It can be an option, and for States like HI with quarantine rules, it can be an option of take a quick test and be negative (go have fun) or don't and possibly quarantine.

Hawaii’s going to be launch state for a new anal swab test... Governor to demo.

I think it is a very long, flexible, throat swab, inserted rectally.