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Re: Covid test regime algorithm

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On 08/01/2021 17:03, Richard Heathfield wrote:
> On 08/01/2021 12:54, Malcolm McLean wrote:
>> When testing large numbers of people for Covid, and expected cases are
>> fairly low, you can reduce the number of test required by pooling
>> samples. You then take the pools which test positive and do further
>> tests to identify the posiitve patients. Pools which test negative are
>> known to have no positive cases.
> 
> With false negative rates of anything up to 25% (ref:
> <https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4851/rr-0>), that's a somewhat
> optimistic claim.
> 

Aren't those false negative rates are for antibody tests (to see if you
have had it), rather than the tests for the virus proteins (to see if
you are carrying it now) ?  Several countries in Africa have been doing
combined samples since they started testing, with good effect when the
case rate is low.  I don't know if they are combining as many samples as
Malcolm suggested.

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Covid test regime algorithm Malcolm McLean <malcolm.arthur.mclean@gmail.com> - 2021-01-08 04:54 -0800
  Re: Covid test regime algorithm David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2021-01-08 16:39 +0100
  Re: Covid test regime algorithm Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2021-01-08 16:03 +0000
    Re: Covid test regime algorithm David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2021-01-08 18:41 +0100
      Re: Covid test regime algorithm Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2021-01-08 19:01 +0000
        Re: Covid test regime algorithm David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2021-01-08 20:14 +0100

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