Are We Testing Wrong for Omicron?

Some scientists say the nose-only approach is missing early infections, but the FDA warns against throat swabbing.

  COVID testing FAQ: When to test, what kind of test to use and what your results mean

The end result is a lot of confusion about testing and a lot of frequently asked questions. Here are some answers to queries you might have about COVID-19 tests.

  You Could Have COVID Symptoms and Still Get Negative on a Rapid Test. (It’s Actually Good News!)

Basically, the vaccines enable the immune system to detect the virus more quickly. Symptoms may therefore appear earlier, when levels of the virus are still too low to be detected by a rapid test. The discordance between symptoms and test results may seem scary, but it’s a promising sign that the vaccine has effectively fortified the immune response.

 FDA finds 3 COVID-19 tests that fail to detect the omicron variant

FDA has identified three COVID-19 molecular tests that are not able to detect the omicron variant and warned that the diagnostics from Applied DNA Sciences, Meridian Bioscience and Tide Laboratories will return false negative results.

 People face long lines as they rush to get tested for COVID ahead of the holidays

The result so far has been around-the-block lines at testing sites and shortages of at-home tests at drug stores. And many Americans are facing the possibility that they'll have to scrap their plans altogether, as the number of testing opportunities dwindles ahead of the holidays.

 Why Getting a Covid Test Two Years Into the Pandemic Is Still Difficult

Long covid testing lines and low availability for at-home rapid tests prove challenging for pandemic-battered Americans.

Testing, Testing

You want a coronavirus test? How about next month?

The Latest in Coronavirus (COVID-19) Testing Methods and Availability

The amount of information coming out about new test development — from at-home testing to portable/point-of-care tests with faster results — can be overwhelming, and it may be difficult to keep track of when and where these tests will be available...

How to reopen society using medical science and logic

We now have an even greater urgency, due to the severe and single-minded policies already implemented. Treating COVID-19 “at all costs” is severely restricting other medical care and instilling fear in the public, creating a massive health disaster, separate from a potential world poverty crisis with almost incalculable consequences.

Testing failures have plagued the U.S. response to Covid-19. How did we get here?

Problems with diagnostic testing have plagued the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic, leaving health officials unable to follow the virus as it spread throughout the country. So what happened?

The Plan That Could Give Us Our Lives Back

The U.S. has never had enough coronavirus tests. Now a group of epidemiologists, economists, and dreamers is plotting a new strategy to defeat the virus, even before a vaccine is found.

America’s shamefully slow coronavirus testing threatens all of us

The US lags just about every developed country on testing for Covid-19 disease.

Can The U.S. Use Its Growing Supply Of Rapid Tests To Stop The Virus?

A new generation of faster, cheaper coronavirus tests is starting to hit the market. And some experts say these technologies could finally give the U.S. the ability to adopt a new, more effective testing strategy.

F.D.A. Paves Way for Home Testing of Coronavirus

New findings, scientists say, will speed up the mass production of affordable self-collection kits that can be dropped in the mail.

Fast, low-cost testing is essential for averting a second wave of Covid-19

While not as sensitive as PCR, these antigen tests can be tremendously helpful in surveillance of new outbreaks. Their low cost and ease of use means they can be deployed frequently and for large numbers of people outside the clinic, such as at nursing homes, colleges, and workplaces, to quickly deliver results that prevent nascent outbreaks from spreading.

How Companies Are Getting Speedy Coronavirus Tests for Employees

Intermediaries are finding labs with capacity for companies seeking to make sure workers are virus-free. But many employers choose to avoid the cost.

How four millennials came to dominate mobile COVID-19 testing

If physicians can do virtual consults, the thinking goes, patients should be able to do tests at home, instead of languishing in lineups. “People will invest $7 to get a burger delivered to their house, so why not invest in some tech that will mean you don’t have to leave your house and go into a physician’s office and put yourself in potential harm’s way?” Thomson said. Crack open the door of at-home diagnostics and behind it may lie an entire world of at-home health-care advances: vaccine delivery, urine analysis, flu shots and more.

It was my job to call people whose Covid-19 tests were positive. That taught me a lot about medicine, the law, and society

I’ve called people from all walks of life, from highly paid executives to minimum-wage workers and the unemployed. The responses to the news I deliver is as varied as they are.

Labs Struggled With Surge in Covid-Testing Demand; How One Made It Through

BioReference Labs shut down temporarily in July in a controversial move that helped it win new business and prepare for the coming flu season.

The race to make coronavirus testing as easy as a pregnancy test

Rapid at-home tests are in the works, but without oversight, they could fail to live up to their potential.

What’s a Pulse Oximeter, and Do I Really Need One at Home?

Health officials are divided on whether home monitoring with a pulse oximeter should be recommended on a widespread basis during Covid-19. Studies of reliability show mixed results, and there’s little guidance on how to choose one. But many doctors are advising patients to get one, making it the go-to gadget of the pandemic.

Why America is still failing on coronavirus testing

To end social distancing, we need mass testing. America is not there yet.

Why America’s coronavirus testing problem is still so difficult to solve

We need more testing to safely reopen the country, but there’s a lot standing in the way.

The Wrong Way to Test Yourself for the Coronavirus

As we approach two years of facing off against this virus, many of us, as hosts, are different now: more knowledgeable and, thanks to vaccines, far better defended. We have more and better tests. But like everything else in our pandemic toolkit, tests will fail when they’re asked to bear the prevention burden alone.

What Covid-19 testing looks like in the age of vaccines

Testing can do things for us now that it couldn’t do before.

Why America Can’t Test Like Europe

America’s complicated health-care system means everything is harder—even rapid testing.

Beyond ‘vaccinopia’: Rapid tests should play a larger role in Biden’s Covid-19 plan

Rapid tests could help us get the pandemic under control in the near term. And over the long run, they could become an essential tactic for reducing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 to low levels, so Covid-19 becomes more a nuisance than remaining a national emergency.

Faster than a PCR test: dogs detect Covid in under a second

Faster than PCR and more accurate than lateral flow tests, the latest weapons against Covid-19 have four legs and a wet nose.

How We Can Stop the Spread of COVID-19 By Christmas

Widespread and frequent rapid antigen testing (public health screening to suppress outbreaks) is the best possible tool we have at our disposal today—and we are not using it.

The Black Hole in America’s COVID-19 Data

States know very little about the results from rapid coronavirus tests.

The case for ending the Covid-19 pandemic with mass testing

It’s especially critical for finding those people who may be spreading the virus without showing symptoms.

The Way We Think About COVID Testing Is About to Change

But you probably haven’t had your last nose swab.

What You Need to Know About Getting Tested for Coronavirus

We asked some of the nation’s leading experts on testing to help answer common questions about how to get tested, what to expect and what the different tests and results really mean. Here’s their advice.

Why the decline in US Covid-19 testing is so alarming

Testing is critical for staying ahead of the new variants.